The one man who will determine more than anyone how the United States responds to the global economic crisis was not present at this weekend’s G20 summit: Barack Obama, the President-elect, declined to attend.

However, Mr Obama made clear yesterday what his economic priorities will be as soon as he takes office on January 20.

He wants to help America’s stricken car industry by passing a Bill granting aid of up to $50 billion (£34.5 billion), and to spend billions more to help defaulting homeowners to fight off repossession.

The Bush Administration has balked at lavishing more money on the country’s “big three” carmakers, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, which say they are in danger of collapse. There appear to be not enough votes in Congress to get an emergency Bill passed, so Mr Obama is likely to use the expanded Democratic majorities after January 20 to ram the legislation through. Mr Obama told CBS’s 60 Minutes: “For the auto industry to completely collapse would be a disaster in this kind of environment.”

He added, however, that such financial help would have to be predicated on the car industry reforming itself and changing the type of vehicles it makes, so that “we are creating a bridge loan to somewhere as opposed to a bridge loan to nowhere”.

Mr Obama has said that he also wants to pass a huge package of job-creating public works projects, like the road and building schemes set up by Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Economists who favour such an approach say that anything less than a $300 billion Bill would fail to kick-start the economy.

On top of that, Mr Obama said he wants to “set up a negotiation between banks and borrowers so that people can stay in their homes”. He said: “If we don’t have a clear, focused programme for homeowners by the time I take office, we will after I take office.”

Mr Obama, in the Democrats’ weekly radio address, applauded President Bush for holding the summit, but reiterated his call for a stimulus package. Mr Bush has opposed such a measure, although the final G20 communiqué appeared to back the President-elect’s desire for a huge injection of capital into the economy. It called for “using fiscal measures to stimulate domestic demand to rapid effect, as appropriate”. Last week China announced a financial stimulus package for its own economy of $580 billion.

Mr Obama stayed away because he did not want to distract from Mr Bush’s efforts, and he was unwilling to be tied to any communiqué or decisions that might restrict his options once he is in office.

His absence meant that many world leaders were having to second-guess what the new Obama Administration will do to tackle the economic crisis.

One pledge to which Mr Bush agreed, a one-year halt to protectionist measures, appears to conflict with Mr Obama’s promise to help the car industry.

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