Obama said he was encouraged that European leaders understood the depth of their continent's economic problems and were working in unison to address it.

"Even if they cannot achieve all of it in one fell swoop, I think if people have a sense of where they are going, that can provide confidence and break the fever," Obama said.

Locked in a difficult campaign, Obama acknowledged he couldn't control the pace of action in Europe despite the repercussions the continent's debt crisis could have on the U.S. economy and his own re-election prospects. The U.S. economy is undergoing a slow recovery amid a slump in hiring and indications that the housing market is healing. Those mixed signals have muddled Obama's prospects for a second term as GOP challenger Mitt Romney mounts a campaign singularly focused on the state of the U.S. economy.

Obama also was frank in laying out the disagreement among the United States, Russia and China over whether Syrian President Bashar Assad can remain as leader of Russia's main Mideast ally.