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Barack Obama has accused David Cameron of allowing Libya to sink into a “mess” in a withering attack on the Prime Minister.

The US President also reveals how Prime Minister put the special relationship at risk by dragging his feet on raising UK defence spending to 2% of GDP

In a surprisingly frank interview with an American magazine, Mr Obama says Mr Cameron got “distracted” after authorising air strikes against Libya and allowed the country to sink into civil war.

He said Libya is a “mess” as a result and privately refers to the country as a “sh** show,” because it has become a haven for ISIS, the article says.

The President said the 2011 military action that led to the fall of Colonal Gadaffi “didn’t work”.

(Image: The Atlantic)

“We actually executed this plan as well as I could have expected: We got a UN mandate, we built a coalition, it cost us $1 billion—which, when it comes to military operations, is very cheap.

"We averted large-scale civilian casualties, we prevented what almost surely would have been a prolonged and bloody civil conflict. And despite all that, Libya is a mess,” Mr Obama told The Atlantic magazine .

The President said he had put too much faith in Mr Cameron and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the main cheerleaders for action.

“When I go back and I ask myself what went wrong there’s room for criticism, because I had more faith in the Europeans, given Libya’s proximity, being invested in the follow-up,” he said.

In the article the President noted Mr Sarkozy was booted out of office the following year and he said Mr Cameron stopped paying attention after becoming “distracted by a range of other things.”

(Image: Twitter)

The President also reveals how he had to shame the Prime Minister to increase UK defence spending.

“Free riders aggravate me,” Mr Obama said, referring to Mr Cameron’s reluctance to contribute more to defence.

The article continues: “Recently, Obama warned that Great Britain would no longer be able to claim a ‘special relationship’ with the United States if it did not commit to spending at least 2 percent of its GDP on defence. ‘You have to pay your fair share,’ Obama told David Cameron , who subsequently met the 2 percent threshold.”

This refers to a conversation between the President and the Prime Minister at the G7 summit last June.

Mr Cameron finally announced in last November’s Defence Review the UK would meet its 2% target.

The Prime Minister's spokeswoman said: "We would share the President of the United States' assessment that there are some real challenges in Libya, that is why we are continuing to work hard with our international partners, including the US and through the UN, to support a process in Libya that puts in place a government that can bring stability to that country."

Mr Cameron has "spoken many times" about why taking military action in Libya was "absolutely the right thing to do", she added.

"We did take a number of steps to support that country following the end of the civil war."

Asked about Mr Obama urging the PM to commit to the Nato 2% target, she said: "I'm not going to get into conversations between the Prime Minister and President."

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