DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Friday, April 3rd 2009, 7:42 AM

WASHINGTON - Other heads of state found in President Obama a guy who could take "No" for an answer Thursday at the world economic summit, and that's what they liked best.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev raved about "my new comrade," and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reinforced Obama's rock star status by asking for Obama's autograph - he said it was for his daughter!

This came after Obama backed off in the face of French and German resistance on his push for developed nations to embrace big spending plans similar to the $800 billion program adopted by the U.S.

Instead, the G-20 nations agreed to pump $1 trillion into the International Monetary Fund rather than prime the pumps in their various home countries.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy gushed that Obama was "a very open man, very open-minded, entirely in line with what we want - namely that politicians shoulder their responsibilities and face up to them."

Sarkozy had threatened to walk out if Obama didn't back off on stimulus, but "things went very well, very smoothly. We are going to do good things together."

Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel got what they wanted: tighter regulation of world markets in the form of blacklists for tax havens and a new international oversight body.

Medvedev and other leaders contrasted Obama's easygoing style with the with-us-or-against-us stance of former President George Bush.

Obama was "totally different" and exuded the humility Bush only preached, Medvedev said. "He can listen," Medvedev said. "We now see a completely different approach, and this suits me."

At a rambling news conference, Obama disputed that he had been rolled by European leaders, adding he expects other nations to "give us the benefit of the doubt. They're still going to have their interests, and we're going to have ours."

The British especially liked Obama's aura of calm. A commentary in the Daily Mail noted: "He came across as a President who would consult and think thrice before bombing the smithereens out of a foreign capital. This can be counted progress."

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That's a change I can believe in. Whatever that means.


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