PRAGUE (AFP) -- Former Czech president Vaclav Havel praised Barack Obama’s drive to rid the world of nuclear weapons Sunday, saying it was an issue that had long been lacking decisive leadership.

Speaking after a 30-minute meeting with the U.S. president in Prague, the widely revered Havel said that Obama had “absolutely honest intentions”.
“The talks (on disarmament) have been dragging on for 30 years, but no one has ever said so categorically that the world must end it,” Havel told reporters on the sidelines of an EU-U.S. summit held under the Czech EU presidency.
Obama pledged in his speech at the Prague Castle on Sunday morning to lead the quest for a world without nuclear weapons, denouncing “fatalism” over proliferation and asking for an immediate end to nuclear testing.
Czech media wrote before his visit that Obama wanted to meet Havel far more than current President Vaclav Klaus and Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who is due to stand down after losing a no confidence vote last month.
Havel, a 72-year-old playwright, dissident and hero of the Velvet Revolution, which ended 40 years of communist rule in Czechoslovakia, spent five years in communist jails before becoming president in December 1989.
When Czechoslovakia split in two countries in 1993, he became president of the newly-formed Czech Republic, standing down 10 years later.
Havel also said he had warned Obama during their meeting that people may be pinning too high hopes on him, and that this may turn against him in the end.
Speaking before he entered their meeting, Obama said that he was a long-term admirer of Havel.
“I was a fan of Mr. Havel’s writings even before he ended up leading, or helping to lead the liberation of this extraordinary country, and so for me to be able to spend some time with him and draw inspiration from him is something that I very much appreciate.”
climate change
Also Obama said on Sunday the United States was ready to take the lead in tackling climate change, as EU leaders pushed him to follow their ambitious targets to combat global warming.
“To protect our planet, now is the time to change the way that we use energy,” Obama told a crowd gathered at Prague Castle for his only public speech during his maiden tour of Europe.
“Together we must confront climate change by ending the world’s dependency on fossil fuels by tapping the power from the sources of energy like the wind and the sun and calling upon all nations to do their part.
“And I pledge to you that in this global effort the U.S. is now ready to lead.”
Obama’s promise of a leading U.S. role on climate change broke with his predecessor George W. Bush’s stance, which had long frustrated Washington’s European Union partners.
He was speaking ahead of his first EU-U.S. summit, with European leaders eager for signs Washington is finally willing to commit to major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
European leaders were often exasperated by his predecessor’s failure to commit the U.S. to climate change targets, especially because Europe has set itself ambitious goals.
Their frustration has been compounded by the fact that the United States is the world’s biggest polluter, leaving the impression in Europe that EU countries are doing all the heavy-lifting in the fight against climate change.
But speaking after their talks, EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said he detected a genuine change under Obama.
The new administration was “much clearer and more ambitious” on climate change, he said.
“We have welcomed very positive changes the U.S. is making.... Only together can we convince others in our common efforts to fight climate change,” Barroso added.
Eager to infuse new vitality into relations with Europe, Obama said that climate change was only one of the major challenges on which he aimed to cooperate along with the economic crisis and global conflicts.
“None of these challenges can be solved quickly or easily,” he said.
“But all of them demand that we listen to one another and work together; that we focus on our common interests, not our occasional differences; and that we reaffirm our shared values, which are stronger than any force that could drive us apart.
“That is the work that we must carry on. That is the work that I have come to Europe to begin.”
Europe has in particular been looking for new U.S. leadership on fighting climate change ahead of an international meeting in Copenhagen in December on reaching a new pact for curbing greenhouse gases beyond 2012.
EU nations have agreed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, rising to 30 percent if the rest of the developed world -- mainly the United States and Japan -- agrees to do so.
The US House of Representatives recently received a draft bill for clean energy development which aims to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent from their 2005 levels by 2020 and boost reliance on renewable sources of energy.