Prague Summit Of EU, US Leaders To Address Crisis

Obama is set to visit the Czech capital on April 4 and 5 following a G20 meeting in London and NATO summit in Strasbourg.

European Union leaders and U.S. President Barack Obama will discuss the financial crisis and security issues at an April summit in Prague, the Czech EU presidency said on Thursday.

The EU-U.S. summit will take place on April 5, on the second day of Obama's visit to the Czech capital.

The first summit of the EU's 27 heads of state with the new U.S. president will directly follow a meeting of the G20 group of leading industrialised and emerging market countries in London and a NATO summit in Strasbourg at the start of April.

"The Prague Summit will address issues of global financial architecture and consequences of the financial crisis as well as issues of transatlantic safety and military cooperation," Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said in a statement.

The Czech Republic holds the rotating EU presidency in the first half of this year.

The statement said Topolanek would meet Obama for a bilateral discussion on April 4.

The Czech government, a close ally of the United States, will be expecting an update on U.S. plans to build a missile defence radar in the Czech Republic.

The Czech government has agreed to host the radar despite strong opposition from Russia, but Obama said this week that the need for the system would be reduced if Iran gave up its nuclear programme.

However, he denied he had offered Russia a deal under which the United States would slow deployment of the system in return for Moscow's help with Iran.