Obama, without naming crisis-hit Greece, also pointed at the European Union's ongoing troubles with debt-hit Athens, mentioning as the top summit issues "the global economy that creates jobs and opportunity" and "maintaining a strong and prosperous European Union".
Merkel -- a champion of tough reforms and austerity in return for loans -- had made a last-ditch effort to resolve the Greek crisis in the days before the G7 summit, huddling during the week with the heads of the IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank in Berlin.
Yet the Greek drama threatened to overshadow the G7 summit, which Merkel has hoped to focus on other pressing global issues -- from climate change and Islamist extremism to women's rights, public health initiatives and the fight against poverty.
Greece's radical-left government and its creditors have been locked in negotiations for five months in a bid to unlock 7.2 billion euros (US$8 billion) in desperately-needed rescue funds.
The European Commission last week presented Greece with a five-page list of proposals, including sales tax hikes and cuts in civil servants' salaries and pensions.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras rejected the demands as "absurd", while Athens withheld a 300-million-euro loan repayment to the IMF, opting instead to group four scheduled tranches into a single payment at the end of the month.
Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told Proto Thema daily Sunday that the demands were "an aggressive move designed to terrorise the Greek government" and declared "this Greek government cannot be terrorised".
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Sunday that Athens had so far failed to provide a list of alternative reforms.
"Alexis Tsipras, my friend, had promised that by Thursday evening, he would present a second alternative proposal... I have never received this alternative proposal," he said.
Juncker had on Saturday snubbed a phone call from the radical leftist leader, with an EU official reportedly saying there was "nothing to discuss", although Tsipras, Merkel and Hollande later spoke by phone.
AFP
