April 3 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said the NATO alliance has been damaged by both past U.S. arrogance and “insidious” anti-Americanism in Europe.

“America is changing, but it cannot be America alone that changes,” Obama told a crowd of about 3,500 students and local residents at the Rhenus Sports Arena in Strasbourg, France, his second stop on an eight-day European trip.

“I’ve come to Europe this week to renew our partnership, one in which America listens and learns from our friends and allies, but where friends and allies bear their share of the burden,” Obama said.

He arrived in Strasbourg this morning from London where he attended a summit of leaders from the Group of 20 focused on dealing with the global financial crisis. Obama is turning from economic matters to security at a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Both topics were part of Obama’s remarks to the largely young crowd at the stadium, which cheered his entrance and exit as well as his remarks about closing the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center and reducing the world’s stockpile of nuclear weapons. He repeatedly returned to his message that the U.S. and its allies must embark on a new era of cooperation.

“We are confronting the greatest economic crisis since World War II,” Obama said. “The only way to confront this unprecedented crisis is through unprecedented coordination.”

Nuclear Arms Goal

Obama said that in a speech he plans to give in Prague April 4 he will outline his agenda “to seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.”

The spread or theft of such arms “could lead to the extermination of any city on the planet,” he said.

Obama’s spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said afterward that the president intends to build on the agreement reached with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in London to negotiate a new arms- control treaty that reduces the stockpile of warheads in both countries.

Obama also addressed his new strategy for Afghanistan, which is a top agenda item at the NATO summit. He said the terrorists occupying the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan are a bigger direct threat to Europe than to the United States. NATO, he said, must “face down” that peril.

Allied Support

The president is seeking to line up more allied troops and money for his new plan to step up the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

He laid out his strategy for the conflict on March 27. It calls for more U.S. forces, establishes benchmarks for improving Afghanistan’s governance and focuses more aid and attention on neighboring Pakistan.

Obama emphasized in outlining his strategy that Afghanistan “is not simply an American problem.”

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 “sidetracked” the pursuit of al-Qaeda and other extremists who had found a safe haven in Afghanistan, he said.

Obama also said that Americans and Europeans shouldn’t believe that U.S. policy in the Middle East or elsewhere is the cause of militancy and extremists.

“Don’t fool yourselves,” he said. “That’s just not the case.”

At a news conference earlier with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Obama said NATO must take on greater role.

“One of my messages to our NATO allies is going to be: the more capability we see here in Europe, the happier the U.S. will be, the more effective we will be in coordinating our activities,” he said.

German Resistance

In addition to his meeting with Sarkozy, Obama held discussions with another key U.S. ally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Baden-Baden, Germany. Germany has resisted U.S. appeals to add more troops to the fight in Afghanistan.

At a joint news conference with Merkel, Obama said that he is “confident” Germany will “step up to the plate” to help the effort in Afghanistan. He called German a “stalwart NATO ally from the start of this conflict and has contributed troops, has contributed resources and will continue to contribute troops and resources.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Edwin Chen in London at echen32@bloomberg.net; Hans Nichols in London at hnichols2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 3, 2009 12:17 EDT