Washington, Mar. 8 : Barack Obama''s weary approach towards Gordon Brown''s Washington visit last week has been attributed to president's exhaustion over America''s economic crisis, White House sources said.

Despite British diplomats insisting that brown's visit was a success, official sources told the Sunday Telegraph that Prime Minister should have been granted a full-blown press conference and a formal dinner, as was customary.

They conceded that Obama aides seemed unfamiliar with the expectations that surround a major visit by a British prime minister.

Brown handed over carefully selected gifts, including a pen holder made from the wood of a warship that helped stamp out the slave trade - a sister ship of the vessel from which timbers were taken to build Obama's Oval Office desk.

Obama''s gift in return, a collection of Hollywood film DVDs that could have been bought from any high street store, looked like the kind of thing the White House might hand out to the visiting head of a minor African state.

But Washington figures with access to Obama's inner circle explained the slight by saying that those high up in the administration have had little time to deal with international matters, let alone the diplomatic niceties of the special relationship.

A White House official who was in charge of Brown's visit said: "There''s nothing special about Britain. You''re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn''t expect special treatment."

One of Obama's most prominent African American backers said Obama was in hurry to do too much too quickly, and there he detects a weakness in Obama''s character.

In addition to passing the largest stimulus package and the largest budget in US history, Obama is battling a plummeting stock market, the possible bankruptcy of General Motors, and rising unemployment. He has also begun historic efforts to achieve universal healthcare, overhaul education and begin a green energy revolution all in his first
50 days in office.

"The one real serious flaw I see in Barack Obama is that he thinks he can manage all this. He''s underestimating the flood of things that will hit his desk. President has regularly appeared worn out and drawn during evening work sessions with senior staff in the West Wing and has been forced to make decisions more quickly than he is comfortable." (ANI)