AFP

CAMP DAVID

PRESIDENT Barack Obama threw his weight behind French calls for more progrowth policies in Europe on Friday, as he welcomed G8 leaders to Camp David for a summit darkened by Greece’s possible eurozone exit.

Obama set the stage for a fractious meeting of world leaders by forging an alliance with new French President Francois Hollande over the need to jolt Europe back to growth.

Fearing Europe’s crisis is poised worsen - with dangerous repercussions for the US economy and perhaps Obama’s chances of re-election - Obama risked the ire of German Chancellor Angela Merkel who has championed an austerity-first approach.

Shortly before welcoming Merkel and other leaders to his famed presidential retreat outside Washington, Obama noted that events in Europe held “extraordinary” importance for the United States.

The G8 needed to discuss “a responsible approach to fiscal consolidation that is coupled with a strong growth agenda,” he said.

To kick-off the summit a tiefree Obama greeted leaders shortly after dusk at the threshold of his wood cabin for an informal dinner.

But the dressed-down atmosphere did little to relieve tensions, which have been stoked by the belief that twoyears of painful cuts demanded by Germany and others have undercut Greek growth and made recovery more diffi- cult.

In what may have been a telling moment, Obama greeted Merkel at his Laurel Lodge with a cordial: “How’ve you been?” When her response came: a shrug and pursed lips, Obama conceded: “Well, you have a few things on your mind.” Publicly European leaders have attempted to smooth over the splits within the G8, insisting austerity and stimulus need not be mutually exclusive.

“We need to take action for growth while staying the course in terms of putting our public finances in order.

Stability and growth go together, they are two sides of the same coin,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said ahead of the summit.

But with Greece’s fiscal crisis apparently approaching denouement, those good words may be sorely tested.

The recent clobbering of Greek parties that back austerity measures under the country’s 173-billion-euro ($220 billion) bailout has sparked a fresh round of market panic and left the twoyear- old effort to prevent a Greek default on life support.

Fresh Greek polls are scheduled for June 17, but there is no certainty that supporters of the painful reforms will win, and already nervous Greeks have been pulling money from bank accounts.

If anti-austerity parties win, the markets are already betting that the rest of Europe turns off the bailout spigot, a decision that would force a Greek default and would likely spell an exit from the eurozone.

So far, European leaders are insisting that Greece must meet its commitments, a stance that will likely be held until the elections. But a row is brewing over whether Greece’s bailout package needs to be revisited.

Two years of austerity have resulted in crippling unemployment and while Greeks say they are overwhelmingly in favour of staying in the eurozone, there is little appetite for more budget cuts.