Obama: Mubarak Must Take Concrete Steps to Deliver Pledge

President Barack Obama said he told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that he has a responsibility to live up to promises he made and take “concrete steps” toward political, social and economic reforms.

“Going forward this moment of volatility has to be turned into a moment of promise,” Obama said in remarks at the White House. He spoke a little more than an hour after Mubarak announced in a televised address to his nation that he asked the government to resign and promised to speed up social and economic changes.

Obama said he talked to Mubarak after his speech and said he was “very clear” that Egyptian authorities must refrain from violence in response to protests.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nicholas Johnston in Washington at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at [email protected]