European debt crisis hovers over G-20 summit in Mexico

Los Cabos, Mexico? European leaders at the G-20 summit struggled to reassure the world Monday that they were on the path to solving their continent's relentless economic crisis, defending the pace of their response even as market pressures pushed Spain closer to needing a bailout that would strain the world's ability to pay.

Before the summit began, U.S. President Barack Obama met Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss differences between the two countries on Syria.

Less than 24 hours after an election that eased fears of a Greek exit from the shared euro currency, the interest rate that Spain pays on its debt surged above the 7-percent level that had forced Greece, Portugal and Ireland to seek international help.

The prospect of a bailout for Spain's $1.39 trillion economy immediately eclipsed the good feeling at the G-20 from the election, and it dwarfed the host country Mexico's expressions of confidence that the meeting of the world's largest economies would lead to more than $430 billion in concrete commitment for the International Monetary Fund as insurance against future bailouts.

Later, the leaders of the world's largest economies agreed to step up their efforts to boost growth and job creation, which they call the top priority in fighting the effects of the European economic crisis, according to a draft of the statement to be released today at the end of the annual meeting.

The draft obtained by the Associated Press on Monday places the G-20 on the side of those who have been arguing for a focus on job creation, including through government spending.

Earlier Monday, Obama and Putin agreed that Syrians should choose their own next government, marking a subtle shift for both the U.S. and Russia as they confront the prospect that Russia's main ally in the Mideast could slide into civil war.

Sharing pledges of common ground, Obama and Putin met for the first time since the Russian leader returned to the presidency last month.

The two leaders "agreed that we need to see a cessation of the violence, that a political process has to be created to prevent civil war and the kind of horrific events that we've seen over the last several weeks," Obama said. Putin, seated next to Obama following the private meeting, said: "We've been able to find many commonalities" on Syria.

But Putin offered no specifics on what those were, and it was unclear how much the closed two-hour talk did to close strategic gaps about how to end the violence.

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