support from president obama maybe using drones? >> reporter: can we expect any time soon specific anti-terrorism action in libya. and then concerning russia. president has been the [ inaudible ] leader in moscow. did you think it was useful? and did you ask and get any specific commitments for the renewal of the sanctions against russia in thank you. >> translator: -- obviously all of the countries interested in finding a solution barring none. we appreciate the work that certain countries are finally doing in the area so all of the

countries are part of this huge undertaking, but please allow me to be very clear. peace in libya, either the tribes do this or no one is going to do this. no one is going to achieve this. the only way to reach peace is if the tribes finally accept that they are going to go towards stabilization, and peace. and our work is that of looking for this to favor all of this at all levels so that that effort does indeed lead to peace. the diplomatic initiatives you are aware of these are the ones we are doing with [ inaudible ] leon and they are the ones that foreign ministers are also trying to support and to study. obviously this is not a job that starts in libya. i would like my italian journalist friends to understand

that libya, is the main problem, but they are part of a more complex greater problem that has to do with the risk of terrorist in filtrations in africa. we are feeling the pain of what happened at the university in kenya, but this regards africa as a whole as a continent. a few days ago we remembered that a year has gone by from when some 100 girls were kidnapped by boko haram and remember the hashtag bringbackourgirls. this is a moral imperative for all of us. therefore the issue of libya is something we have to place in a wider context. the technical solutions, our teams are looking at them every

single day, and they are obviously technical solutions in which this there is a full awareness. the united states is next to the -- europe is next to the united states in a huge challenge that will bring the troops in our country to spend more time in afghanistan, much more -- so than we thought. obviously in terms of the technical solutions that i mentioned, this is not something that has to do with political debates. it has to do with our technical teams, with their expertise. i have to be sure i have priority, and assurance from the united states that this is not something in which italy is working on its own. i can tell you that as far as

we're concerned, the cooperation and the work together with you, both in the natural diplomatic way, and in the constant work which is done every single day, which is a job which is done silently quietly in every day life which takes us to heroism. i'm thinking about the coast guards the men and women that saved those people at sea -- at sea that allowed a young woman to give birth on the boat. she was dying, and they saved two lives. this is what we want to do but we have to be fully aware of the fact that the work that we do together is a job that not only regards libya, but all of africa i might say the whole world. and allow me to say this without taking the floor too long. this is a job that we are doing everywhere from russia to latin america, afghanistan, to the middle east.

the cooperation and work which is done between the united states and italy is something out of discussion that cannot be discussed. >> we are consistently looking where terrorist threats might emanate, and libya obviously is an area of great concern. isil has been very specific about wanting to use the chaos inside of libya as a potential justification for putting some of their personnel there. so the coordination with italy and with other of our key partners is going to be very important. we will not be able to solve the problem just with a few drone strikes or a few military operations. you have a country that has been broken into a number of tribal factions. there's some sectarian elements

to it. and you don't have a central government that is functioning effectively, so we still have to guard against the use of the territories in libya as a safe haven for terrorist operations much in the way we have done with respect to somalia for many years, but the answer ultimately is to have a government that can control its own boarders and work with us. that's going to take some time. but we will combine counter terrorism efforts in cooperation with italy and other like-minded nations with a political effort and we're going to have to encourage some of the countries inside of the gulf who have i

think influence over the various factions inside of libya to be more cooperative themselves. in some cases you have seen them fan the flames of military conflict rather than try to reduce them. with respect to russia i i -- matteo and i agree that we need implementation of minsk. and i expressed by belief that the european council needs to continue the current sanctions in place, until we have seen full implementation of the minsk agreement. there will be a vote this summer, and my expectation is not only italy but all countries in europe would recognize that it would be a wrong message to

send to reduce sanctions pressure on russia when their key implementation steps don't happen until then of the year. at minimum we have to min contain the existing sanction levels until we have seen that they have carried out the steps they are required to under the agreement. and, you know, one of the things that matteo and i share and i think the italian and american people share is a sense of values and principles that sometimes override political ex expeed antsy. that's part of our memories because of the history of both of our countries. and, you know, i think we have to be realistic and practical in how we look at a problem like ukraine, but we have to also

recall that the reason there is a unified and prosperous europe is because enormous sacrifices were made on behalf of ideals and principles. and if -- if those principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty start getting ignored, then that carries a cost for europe and for the world. thank you very much. thank you everybody. >> president obama saying good-bye to journalists as we walks out with the italian prime minister. after a lengthy news conference covering a variety of issues. internationally talking about the need for international growth for a trade agreement for the trans-atlantic and the pacific, and also speaking about cooperation that has been

received from members of congress in clearing the way for the achievement of possible deal with iran. talking about the compromise between senators corker and carden that will preserve what he says is presidential prerogative. always domestically the president's sharpest comments came when he was asked about the pending vote on the nomination for loretta lynch as attorney general. our mike viqueira is live at the white house. mike was inside that news conference. mike for you, what is the big message? >> reporter: well i think there were two things that leapt out at me and it came in the form of answers to questions that were asked, and those two issues you mentioned one of them there iran the president going along with that legislation in congress. you have to remember the president very strenuously opposed when it was taking

shape. compromises were reached but still the white house not entirely happy with it. it was very clear, though that the flood gates were open it wasn't only republicans but democrats who were on board, so the white house more or less just jumped out in front of the parade but the president warning yet again if the united states were to back off its commitment to lift sanctions as per the agreement that was reached with iran then the sanctions regime if they had to be put back on iran if there was disunity among the countries then the sanctions would begin to frey. and the other top issue was libya. obviously a chaotic mess there. prime minister renzi putting forth his view. his is a country where the humanitarian crisis as a result of the situation in libya is literally lapping up at his

country's shores. 400 individuals died by drowning just this past sunday. there were other violent people on board, and this comes after months and even years of humanitarian crisis people trying to escape libya. he said this has to be settled within libya. president obama voting that the situation was chaotic. it cannot be solved by drone strikes, counter terrorism attacks any of that matter. >> also russia. the u.s. has put boots on the ground for ukraine a message there for president putin. >> that's right. the united states sending some 300 paratroopers there to work with the ukrainian military. the ukrainian government has been asking for quite sometime for more help in the form or

equipment or training whatever the united states can do. even this modest step now to train the ukrainians. something the russians have called overnight destabilizing. you hear the president endorse the compromise the ceasefire that was agreed to in minsk some months ago. >> patty there was a lot of talk about the pending vote on trade agreements and apparently another compromise towards getting the authority to make it happen. >> right. the language for the legislation to be able to fast track the trade partnerships. obama taking this opportunity for a hard tell again on tpp, trying to assure the american people it is not going to cost jobs degrade environmental standards, that it is going to

boost the economy. but there is a strong fear out there that there will be job losses as a result of tpp, will go over to lower-cost labor markets. so, again, obama coming out and saying we'll have those labor standards in place. and these trade agreements will likely contain a provision that will allow foreign investors to sue the u.s. government if they adopt regulations or policies that could harm potential profits. but these have been invoked increasingly within the last ten years, and there's a fear that as that cost goes up if the u.s. loses one of these suits, it could have a chilling effect on regulation going forward. >> as the president was speaking, i was looking at the twitter feed and we saw richard [ inaudible ] coming out and

saying no fast track, calling on labor families to be on the streets on april 18th to get -- to put pressure on lawmakers to stop the president from doing it. >> exactly. there are a lot of people who don't want to see the fast track. when a trade agreement is fast tracked it prevents congress from going through and picking out what they don't like. buzz these negotiations take years, and the parties weighing in are governments and corporations. so there is a lot of fear surrounding this trade agreement. >> we're going to take areak and we'll come back with more coverage on the president's wide-ranging news conference with prime minister renzi of italy.

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history in the making, holding a we have special live coverage from the news conference that was just held with president obama and italian prime minister matteo renzi. renzi saying that the new greek government needs to be serious when it comes to meeting its financial obligations to europe. >> but there are a framework of agreement in the european institutions which are very important greek government must respect. at the same time we must for the future write a new page in the european economics. i am on -- absolutely confident that we finish awe stairty in europe but the national government must do reforms.

>> now it is interesting patricia sabga, that he specifically cited a couple of statistics saying that since 2008 in the u.s. unemployment has gone done gdp has gone up. the u.s. with quantitative easing. not what a lot of conservatives wanted. and europe which attempted a reverse strategy of austerity. unemployment has gone up and gdp has gone down and he praised the president's strategy for growth. >> that's right. and for years many europeans were pushing for ah stairty and more reforms. but as deflation took hold in europe, they sit on their money, they don't spend it it grinds

economic activity to a halt in order to alleviate those pressures any european central bank has engaged in this quantitative easingeing program, and we're starting to see some signs that it is helping. as the euro going down it means european exports are cheaper to buy overseas. >> so what does this mean in terms of america's economic plan going forward and in particular the trade talks. >> in terms of quantitative easing that would be part of the trade talk. but we want strong economies to trade with. but the other problem we're seeing right now, and you are probably going to see this really reflected in the first quarter gdp numbers for the united states, they will probably be a little disal pointing, and one of the factors

is the very strong dollar because when the dollar is strong our exports are more expensive to buy overseas. that means if you have a 401k that is sighed to the s&p, so when our dollar is strong it slows down how we're doing overseas. >> president obama said not only is the u.s. economy at an issue here but the global economy as well. >> you know, it's been my view with respect to europe that it's not an either/or situation, but a both and situation. sometimes it gets framed as what is the right answer for europe? ah -- austerity or structural

reform? if there's too much bureaucracy to start a new business then businesses will go elsewhere, or talented entrepreneurs will start business someplace else. so i think the prime minister's government is on the right track in initiating the kind of reforms that angela merkel and others have called on for a long time. >> it is interesting he mention mentioned angela merkel because at times the u.s. has been rather critical of germany's take. especially with respect to greece greece. niece is at issue here germany is at issue here. and the president making a point to say angela and i are all right. >> definitely. you do need to see reforms, but

you can't keep putting these austerity measures on these countries and expect them to get buy. and this is a big issue on greece because it has another payment coming up and what greece really needs right now is more bailout funds released. and they are not getting them from their european creditors, and this is causing all sorts of pain in greece right now, because they have pensioned to pay, and public sector workers to pay. and there is talk that they may have to raid their pension funds. greece wants some alleviation with the austerity, but the more hard liners within the e.u. they want to see more restructural reforms, and neither side is giving much now. >> a last week when greece came up with its first payment on

time did that not give some hope? >> greece did come up with its payment, but it's just driving them into a deeper and deeper hole. it's not helping their economy recover, and that is the point that greece is trying to make. and don't forget the politics involved here. the far left party was swept to power, and formed an agreement with the far right, because they agreed that think austerity is causing too many hardships. and we saw the greek prime minister go meet with putin. there was definitely a signal there, it was definitely meant to annoy, if you will the e.u. creditors, saying give us a break here. >> and of course russia has its

own economic problems but maybe that's a conversation for another news conference. we'll be back after this. after the shelling, a gunship targeted a market. the u.n. is planning to undertake an urgent mission to damascus. the crisis in syria has been >> i think we're into something that's bigger than us... >> that's the pain that your mother feels when you disrespect her son...

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a provincial governor in iraq says a former top advisor to saadam hue contain has been killed. he was once the country's vice president. he is believed to have financed several armed groups fighting the iraqi government. the latest campaign against the iraqi military near tikrit. he was the king of clubs in that famous u.s. military of 55 most wanted iraqis. >> there was no reconciliation for him. he was not all of a sudden going to turn over to the new iraqi government and try to reconcile with him. he was going to jail or to be executed like saadam was.

>> he was with a group of suicide bombers who blew themselves up. officials are conducting a dna test to confirm his death. a car bomb went off a short time ago near the u.s. consulate in erbil. three people are dead including a guard. but no count sol at it employees were killed. isil fighters say they are responsible. there is fierce fighting underway today near ramadi thousands are iraqis are leaving the city after a series of isil attacks. american forces are conducting trains not far from ramadi. sa there is no plans to withdraw them. the kremlin is warning the west about the arrival of u.s. troops in ukraine. 300 army paratroopers are in the

country to train the ukrainian national guard. but the kremlin says that could destabilize the region. rory challands has more from moscow. >> reporter: you can probably assume that the kremlin is a bit more worried about this than they are letting on. they will see this as part of a continuation of nato encroachment on russia and they have always been against joining of ukraine into the nato security umbrella obviously this isn't going that far, but they are going to look on this not kindly at all. another thing the russias will be looking closely at is who is being trained by these u.s. paratroopers because included in ukraine's national guards are various irregular units who have been fighting against the

pro-russian separatists in the east, and some are on the far right of the political spectrum so if it is proven that those brigades are included in this training program, it will give russia a strong case to they the u.s. is training fascists. in other news today, an ohio man has now been arraigned and pled not guilty on charges that he was providing material support for terrorism. prosecutors say he traveled to syria to train with an al-qaeda-linked group and was planning an attack on the u.s. >> reporter: the government alleges that this man traveled to syria for terrorist training. he made that trip two months after gaining american citizenship. >> the benefit of being an american, is