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Obama failed to get European leaders to commit to U.S.-style stimulus packages or to get NATO allies to send more combat troops to Afghanistan. But he prevented French President Nicolas Sarkozy from walking out of the G20 summit, as he threatened to do earlier. He also helped persuade China to agree to publish lists of tax havens, and got NATO allies to agree to sending up to 5,000 more military trainers and police to Afghanistan.

PRAGUE – President Barack Obama on Sunday launched an effort to rid the world of nuclear weapons, calling them "the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War" and saying the U.S. has a moral responsibility to lead as the only nation to ever use one. In a speech driven with fresh urgency by North Korea's rocket launch just hours earlier, Obama said the U.S. would "immediately and aggressively" seek ratification of a comprehensive ban on testing nuclear weapons. He said the U.S. would host a summit within the next year on reducing and eventually eliminating nuclear weapons, and he called...

PRAGUE -- Michelle Obama's whirlwind tour of Prague turned into a love affair with a city and its people. "I'll be back," she said. Crowds of young Czechs and tourists chanting "Obama! Obama!" waved at the first lady as she walked the cobblestones of the Jewish Quarter. She waved right back, and there were no angry faces as far as the eye could see. "She was totally with them," said Michaela Sidenberg, her guide.

...Obama urged the European Union on Sunday to accept Turkey as a full member of the 27-nation bloc...Obama told the summit..."Moving forward towards Turkish membership in the EU would be an important signal of your (EU) commitment to this agenda and ensure that we continue to anchor Turkey firmly in Europe,"

PRAGUE (AFP) – Barack Obama flew into Prague on Saturday for a summit with EU leaders, making his first venture behind the erstwhile Iron Curtain on the third leg of his maiden European tour as US president. Obama will be using his visit to the Czech Republic -- current holder of the rotating EU presidency -- to deliver a keynote speech on nuclear proliferation, as the world awaits a threatened North Korean missile launch. Together with Poland, the Czech Republic is to host elements of a nuclear missile defence shield, initiated by Obama's predecessor George W. Bush, that Russia regards...

Europe melts for Michelle By: Nia-Malika Henderson and Jonathan Martin April 4, 2009 06:33 PM EST He was cool and understated, the slightest bit aloof. She choked up as she told young minority girls to follow their dreams. He gave speeches. She gave hugs. And while Barack Obama came to Europe as the American president, Michelle Obama came as something entirely different – almost an American tourist, but the kind even jaded Europeans could love, big-hearted, curious, sophisticated yet accessible. They simply melted for Michelle. Of course, the Europeans were eager to gush over a First Couple not named Bush....

Stjepan Mesic, Barack Obama, Ivo Sanader Albania and Croatia have already done a lot on behalf of NATO, Barack Obama said, alluding to soldiers participating in peace missions. The NATO summit in Strasbourg began with a minute of silence for people who had been killed on behalf of NATO. After that, French President Nicolas Sarkozy held a speech. He said the summit was taking place in Germany and France to show that these two countries ensure peace and security together. German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed that Afghanistan is NATO’s biggest challenge. "We must define our goals and periodically determine what...

STRASBOURG, France — President Obama, appearing on the eve of a NATO summit meeting here, told a cheering crowd of young people on Friday that “America is changing, but it cannot be America alone that changes.” The gathering resembled any of the countless, similar rallies held during his presidential campaign. But this one took place in the Alsatian border region of France and Germany, not in a gymnasium in Des Moines, and Mr. Obama seemed bent on repairing soured trans-Atlantic relations that began with the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

PRAGUE (AFP) – The Czech Republic's prime minister hopes to persuade US President Barack Obama not to abandon a controversial missile shield project in Eastern Europe when he visits Prague this weekend. "I will tell him that we, unlike him, are complying with the ratification" of diplomatic and military contracts on the missile shield signed in 2008, outgoing Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said recently on the Czech Radio. Washington's new policy of dialogue with Moscow has increased anxiety among Prague and Warsaw leaders who support a radar base on Czech soil and anti-missile interceptors in Poland despite loud protests from...

The charms of a wonderful woman and a beautiful city are hard to beat. So much so that Barack Obama will snub his hosts after arriving in Prague this evening in favour of a romantic Saturday night dinner with his wife, Michelle. The Czech Republic is a stopover on the US President's first tour of Europe because it currently holds the presidency of the European Union, which rotates every six months. But rather than meet the country's conservative leaders, with whom the President has little in common and who have been rather rude about the United States recently, the Obamas...