US President, Barack Obama, today expressed his desire to reinforce the 'solid' bilateral relations between his country and Spain and referred to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as his 'friend'.

After five years of cool relations between the two countries, the two leaders, who have met various times this week, at the G-20 conference in London and the NATO summit in Strasbourg, used today's meeting in Prague as the announcement of a beginning of a new era of collaboration between Spain and the USA.

As it was to be expected, the two leaders discussed bilateral realtions, the Middle East, Latin America, the global recession, climate change, renewable energy sources and international terrorism.

The spokesman for the US National Security Council, Mike Hammer, reported that Obama 'showed a keen interest in strengthening relations between the USA and Spain and in renewing the friendship between the two nations'.

During the pre-conference photo session Obama commented that Zapatero understood fully Spain's 'extraordinary influence' in the world and took his responsibility 'very seriously'.
 
US press sources reported that Obama had said 'I'm happy to be able to consider him a friend' and that the meeting had been very 'cordial' and that they 'understood each other well'.

Zapatero, for his part, stated that realtions between Spain and the US were entering a new phase and that his intention was to collaborate with Obama to achieve greater peace and justice in the world, to combat poverty and lay the foundations of a stable future for the generations to come.