US Ambassador denies rift with UK over Libya: 'Obama and Cameron's friendship is real'
Video report by Tom Bradby
The US Ambassador to the UK has downplayed talk of a rift between the two nations over the handling of the 2011 Libya intervention - telling ITV News the two leaders' friendship was "real".
Matthew Barzun insisted the UK-US 'special relationship' was still special, and praised the two countries' joint handling of a number of crises in recent years including Ebola, humanitarian aid and the situation in Syria.
It comes after a magazine interview with President Barack Obama appeared to place blame on British Prime Minister David Cameron and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy for the current situation in Libya - describing it as a "s***-show"**.
During the interview, reported in The Atlantic, Mr Obama said he had had "more faith in the Europeans... being invested in the follow-up", and said Mr Cameron had become "distracted by a range of other things".
Mr Barzun has now moved to clarify these comments in an interview with ITV News at Ten presenter Tom Bradby, arguing Mr Obama had already taken "personal responsibility" for Libya.
He said it was "important" to talk about places where action has not gone as well as hoped.
The US and the UK were "leading together" in many areas, he added - and while he refused to go into detail, he said he had been party to a number of conversations between the President and the PM.
"The friendship is real and the closeness is real," he said.
"You see that in private and you also see that in public. And you see it all around the world where the UK is leading as a diplomatic super power, where the US is leading and where we're working together."
On the impending EU referendum, Mr Barzun said the decision was ultimately up to Britain to determine its own relationship with Europe - but added that he does believe the UK is stronger within the EU.