Once again, Obama goes big and bold and wins admiration without evidence that his advice made any sense or did any good

Barack Obama is pressuring Spain to make austerity cuts as the European debt crisis rumbles on, it has emerged.

The U.S. President has also been credited with helping to save the Euro, after giving advice to European leaders on how to handle the debt crisis.

U.S. officials have been adamant that Europe must take the lead in resolving the crisis.

But amid fears for the impact on the American economy, behind closed doors the U.S. has been taking a far more active role.

Mr Obama and his aides have privately pressured European leaders to take bold action to calm the storm in financial markets.

Pressure: U.S. President Barack Obama has called Spanish Prime Minister Jose Zapatero to urge Spain to take 'resolute action'

Yesterday he called Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to discuss the importance of 'resolute action' by Spain.

Spain's public finances, along with Portugal's, have caused the most concern after those of Greece, which secured a European bailout.

The White House said Mr Obama was actively engaged in ensuring that Europe's debt crisis did not hurt the global economy.

There are fears that the state of the economies in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland - who all currently have high levels of debt - could stall the U.S. economy just as it was beginning to improve.

Former Treasury and White House official Tony Fratto said: 'We're in a slow growth recovery. It would not take much to get growth down to zero or 1 per cent.'

Mr Obama has held phone calls with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy about the European crisis in recent days.

The message was clear: Act boldly.

American officials urged that Mr Sarkozy and Mrs Merkel recall the U.S. lesson of 2008-2009 when the Bush administration persuaded a reluctant Congress to approve a massive $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

While politically unpopular, the U.S. rescue plan convinced markets that authorities were serious about keeping banks afloat.