CANNES, France – After two days at the G-20 summit, President Obama today said global leaders have “moved the ball forward” on the European financial crisis and the he is “confident that Europe has the capacity to meet this challenge.”

“I can say that we’ve come together and made important progress to put our economic recoveries on a firmer footing,” Obama said at a brief news conference in Cannes after the conclusion of the summit. “Make no mistake, there is more hard work ahead and more difficult choices to make. But our European partners have laid a foundation on which to build, and it has all the elements needed for success, a credible firewall to prevent the crisis from spreading, strengthening European banks, charting a sustainable path for Greece and confronting the structural issues that are at the heart of the current crisis.

“I am confident that the key players in Europe, the European political leadership, understands how much of a stake they have in making sure that this crisis is resolved, that the eurozone remains intact. And I think that they are going to do what’s necessary in order to make that happen,” he added.

As for the political turmoil in Greece, Obama said he was encouraged that “even the opposition leader in Greece indicated that it’s important to move forward on the proposal.”

The president stressed that the United States will “continue to do our part” to support European leaders and said he had “sympathy for my European counterparts.”

In case Americans think the European crisis doesn’t affect them, Obama laid out the stakes. “Put simply, the world faces challenges that put our economic recovery at risk. … If Europe isn’t growing, it’s harder for us to do what we need to do for the American people: creating jobs, lifting up the middle class and putting our fiscal house in order,” he said.

Despite being six time zones away from Washington, the president continued to push his $447 billion jobs bill, saying “the most important thing we can do for global growth is to get our own economy growing faster.”