Obama to host EU leaders

U.S. President., Barack Obama

President Barack Obama is hosting European Union (E.U.) leaders for a summit Monday that is likely to focus on the European debt crisis.

Obama will meet at the White House with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

The Obama administration is watching warily as European countries struggle to bolster confidence in the euro currency. The crisis has seen smaller eurozone nations Greece, Portugal and Ireland bailed out and is now threatening much bigger economies, such as Italy and Spain.

The Obama administration has expressed concerns that the crisis could damage the U.S. economy.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.