World wants Obama leadership on wars and economy

World leaders have already drawn up demands to put to US president-elect Barack Obama and quickly expressed a desire to see his promise of change applied to key conflicts and dragging the global economy out of crisis. Presidents and prime ministers were quick to hail what French leader Nicolas Sarkozy called a "brilliant victory" but wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a nuclear standoff with Iran will become immediate priorities alongside the financial turmoil that has dragged much of the world into recession. European Union foreign ministers drew up a six-page list of demands to put to Obama at a meeting in the French city of Marseille on Monday, the eve of the US election. The letter called for a partnership of equals on key challenges from the Middle East to the finance crisis, said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner at the meeting. Kouchner said Europe wanted increased cooperation on the Middle East, on Afghanistan and Pakistan, on relations with Russia, ties with China and other emerging powers, and for multilateral decision-making on key global issues. European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said the election victory is "a time for a renewed commitment between Europe and the United States of America." He added: "We need to change the current crisis into a new opportunity. We need a new deal for a new world." China's President Hu Jintao also said it was "a new historical era" and added: "I look forward to... taking our bilateral relationship of constructive cooperation to a new level."But experts said Obama has only limited room to make major changes in Iraq and Afghanistan, or even to the US economy. Robin Shepherd, senior research fellow at the Chatham House institute in London, said Obama has made Afghanistan a security priority and there could be problems for Germany if he asks allies for more troops. "It would be very difficult for (Chancellor) Angela Merkel to refuse a request from somebody as popular as Barack Obama when it comes to troop levels in Afghanistan. "I think that those countries which are already quite strongly committed in Afghanistan would probably find a very good ally in Barack Obama and those countries such as Germany would run into problems." Michael McKinley, senior lecturer in international relations at the Australian National University in Canberra, said Obama's commitment to boost troops in Afghanistan was a mistake. "That is going to be one of the great failures of his presidency. Anybody who goes into Afghanistan is going to lose," he said.