Again, he urged an immediate resolution to the debt crisis, saying the issue is “hugely important” for the United States but stressing that the answer to Europe’s problems lies in Europe.
The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, told reporters, “We continue to believe that this is a European issue, that Europe has the resources and capacity to deal with it, and that they need to act decisively and conclusively to resolve this problem.”
Mr. Obama met Monday with José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission; Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council; and Catherine Ashton, the European foreign policy chief.
The summit meeting came as the United States received a reminder of its own debt woes. Fitch Ratings lowered the country’s ratings outlook to negative from stable, though it maintained its sterling AAA grade for United States debt.
Fitch had said in August that a failure by the special bipartisan committee in Congress on deficit reduction would probably result in a negative rating.
Senior Obama administration officials describe a two-pronged policy response, expected to last for months, to the European crisis. First, in numerous private conversations and increasingly forceful public statements, policy makers are urging their European counterparts to take big steps and move fast to reassure markets. Second, Washington is increasing efforts to shelter American institutions from European turbulence.
President Obama and his policy team have said that there is no greater threat to the fragile American recovery than a contracting and destabilized Europe — a belief repeated on Monday.
“I communicated to them that the United States stands ready to do our part to help them resolve this issue,” Mr. Obama said. “If Europe is contracting, or if Europe is having difficulties, then it’s much more difficult for us to create good jobs here at home.”
On Monday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned that the euro crisis was a drag on global economic growth. “Decisive policies must be urgently put in place to stop the euro area sovereign debt crisis from spreading and to put weakening global activity back on track,” it said.
In light of the continuing troubles, Mr. Obama and Mr. Carney repeated the administration’s belief that Europe needed to quiet debt markets immediately. In past weeks, Treasury officials including Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Lael Brainard, under secretary for international affairs, have made the same call.
“It is crucial that Europe move quickly to put in place a strong plan to restore financial stability,” Mr. Geithner said at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Hawaii this month.
Mr. Obama said Monday that the United States stood “ready to do its part.” The administration has held scores of private conversations, with everyone from Mr. Obama to Treasury aides involved, to help ease the crisis in the past months.
Treasury officials say that European policy makers need to build a “fire wall” to stabilize borrowing costs for afflicted euro zone members. Then, they need to begin to repair individual countries’ balance sheets. They describe their talks with Europe as advisory, often repeating that the solution must be European.
Administration officials say that they frequently refer to Washington’s experience in thawing the credit squeeze and backstopping financial markets after the failure of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.
“It is unbelievably hard to create new mechanisms during a crisis,” a senior administration official said. “They are facing legitimately difficult political and institutional constraints.”
The administration officials have provided European officials with background on the construction of American emergency programs to ease credit markets, like the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility. They have also discussed Washington’s efforts to stabilize and recapitalize banks.
Given the United States’ own recent financial crisis, the Obama administration is also watching closely for signs of contagion and urging banking institutions to cut their exposure to Europe.
The Financial Stability Oversight Council, established by the Dodd-Frank financial law, has held repeated calls on the European situation. The discussions have included top financial regulators, like Mr. Geithner and the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, as well as lower-level aides.
“The continued rise in sovereign-debt spreads for some countries, more generalized market volatility, and political turmoil that we have seen in recent days speak to the need for forceful action,” Janet L. Yellen, vice chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, said in a speech this month discussing the government’s oversight policies.
The Fed, she said, is “actively engaged in ensuring that U.S. financial institutions are appropriately managing their credit and liquidity risks.”
The Federal Reserve last week ordered the biggest American banks to perform rigorous stress tests of their portfolios, to ensure they have enough capital to cover losses in a significant economic deterioration.
To address the euro zone crisis, the Federal Reserve also said the six largest firms would test the impact of a “global market shock” incorporating “potential sharp market price movements in European sovereign and financial sectors.”
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