Obama's first priority economy: Canada's PM

January 20, 2009 11:06:04 AM

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Canada's prime minister on Monday urged US president-elect Barack Obama to focus primarily on tackling US financial and economic woes after he takes over the Oval Office, for the world's sake.

Washington's "continuing efforts to stabilize the United States's financial sector" and stimulate the US economy are "very high on my list" of would-be priorities for Obama, said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The woeful state of the US financial sector, triggered by a collapse in the US subprime mortgage market last year, "will remain a major challenge to the world economy until it is fixed," he said.

Obama is expected to make his first official foreign visit to Canada, possibly in February. Travel dates have not yet been announced.

Harper described the upcoming trip as "a wonderful gesture and a great sign of re-establishing the strong Canadian-American relations."

"None of us are under any illusions about the great challenges that face President Obama," commented Harper. But "in all the great challenges that confront him, he will find no better friend, neighbor and ally than Canada."

The election of the first black US president, he added one day before Obama's inauguration, is "hugely symbolic" and is an "important page in American history."