Barack Obama flies on to London after Paris meeting with Sarkozy

Democrat Barack Obama brought his presidential campaign to Paris today, where he met with French President Nicholas Sarkozy and discussed issues including Iran, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and climate change.

After his brief visit to Paris, Obama arrived in London, the final stop on his tour.

At a televised news conference with Sarkozy, Obama urged Iran to accept proposals to limit its nuclear program.

Iran represents an “extraordinarily grave situation,” Obama said, adding the world must send “a clear message to Iran to end its illicit nuclear program” and not wait for the next president to be elected in the United States.

“My expectation is that we’re going to present a clear choice to Iran: change your behavior and you will be fully integrated into the international community with all the benefits that go with that,” Obama said. “Continue your illicit nuclear program and the international community as a whole will ratchet up pressure with stronger and increased sanctions.”

Obama’s reception in Paris contrasted with how his rival, Republican John McCain, was received in March. Obama was greeted by a smiling Sarkozy, who returned to Paris for the meeting from another summit. The Sarkozy and Obama news conference was held in front of the Elysee Palace; after Sarkozy and McCain met, the senator fielded questions alone from reporters in the courtyard.

Republicans have criticized Obama for appearing to act too much like a president rather than a candidate during his trip through war zones, the Mideast and European capitals. They have called the visits a victory lap before the campaign had been won.

Obama addressed those complaints in responding to a reporter’s question about current U.S. foreign policy: “I’m not the president,” he said. “I am a United States senator. I am a candidate for president.

“There’s a wonderful tradition,” he said. “You don’t spend time criticizing a sitting president when you are overseas … we have one president at a time. It is important that our foreign policy is presented in one voice.”

Still, Obama said that “the goal of an Obama administration in foreign policy would be to act on behalf of the interests of the United States and also work with our allies.”

European leaders have complained that the Bush administration was too willing to go it alone, particularly on Iraq.

Obama said his trip, which included visits with U.S. military leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan, had not caused him to change his “basic strategic assessment” that U.S. combat troops should be withdrawn from Iraq and resources added to fight the Taliban, Al Qaeda and other terrorists in Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan is a war we have to win,” Obama said. “We’ve got to finish the job.”

France, part of NATO, has supported sending troops to Afghanistan. “I understand the difficult politics of this in France,” Obama said. “That’s why I think President Sarkozy’s stand is so courageous.”

Obama and Sarkozy appeared chummy at their news conference, chatting and laughing. They first met in 2006, a year before Sarkozy was elected president of France.

On Thursday, Obama spoke before a crowd of 200,000 in an open-air rally in Berlin. Earlier in his nine-day overseas trip, he met with heads of state and government in the Mideast.

While Obama has traveled abroad, McCain has concentrated on battleground states in the United States.

Today, the Arizona senator is campaigning in Colorado where he delivered an address on foreign policy and veterans issues at the 2008 American GI Forum of the United States, a largely Latino group.

Colorado has been targeted by both campaigns in the general election. A state poll on Thursday showed McCain with a slim lead in Colorado, though other polls show Obama running ahead with Latinos, a key voting group throughout the West and Southwest.

Later, McCain is scheduled to meet the Dalai Lama in Aspen, Colo., before heading home to Sedona, Ariz., for the weekend.

 michael.muskal@latimes.com