Obama: Britain should not go out of the EU
Baku, May 14 (AZERTAC). US President Barack Obama has said the UK should try to "fix" its relationship with the EU before "breaking it off".
Speaking alongside David Cameron at the White House, Mr Obama said it was up to the British people to decide the matter but EU membership was an "expression" of the UK's global influence.
The PM said his plan to renegotiate the UK's EU membership with a referendum by the end of 2017 had "strong support".
Mr Cameron's strategy has faced criticism from some in his party.
Ahead of his White House talks Mr Cameron rounded on senior Conservatives wanting to leave the European Union, accusing them of "throwing in the towel" before negotiations had even started.
He called the position held by former cabinet ministers Lord Lawson and Michael Portillo "very, very strange".
Seventy MPs have now backed calls for a vote on an EU referendum on Wednesday.
The US president was asked about the growing number of senior Conservatives openly discussing the prospect of the UK leaving the EU and what this would mean for UK-US relations.
He told reporters that Mr Cameron's "basic point that you probably want to see if you can fix what is broken in a very important relationship before you break it off - that makes some sense to me".
The US had a "special relationship" with the UK and an "active, robust, outward-looking" Britain that was "engaged with the world" helped underpin this partnership, he suggested.
"The UK's participation in the EU is an expression of its influence and its role in the world as well as obviously a very important economic partnership," he added.
Mr Obama said he awaited the outcome of "tough negotiations" about the EU's future with interest, noting that the PM had been "very active" in pushing for structural reforms.
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