Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Friday that US president-elect Barack Obama could lose the political capital he has gained if the financial crisis extends for another year, dpa reported.
Obama faces the "greatest responsibility" to solve the widening credit crunch, Lula said.
"Obviously he will have to make moves to solve it, because that crisis cannot extend much longer. All the political capital he gained can be lost if the crisis extends for one or two years."
Lula compared Obama's victory to his own in 2002, when he was the first working-class candidate to become president of the largest country in South America.
"Everything started in our South America. Looking at what happened in our continent is enough to realize that Obama is one more step in that process - I mean, a black man in the United States presidency," he said.
Lula was referring to his 2002 success, as well as the electoral triumphs of Evo Morales - Bolivia's first president of indigenous descent, and Fernando Lugo - the first bishop to become president of Paraguay.