U.S. President Barack Obama consulted with Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano Friday on the implications of his country's looming elections.

Napolitano, who is retiring, said before the talks in the Oval Office that the "remarkable" progress made in Italy over the last 14 months must continue after the election on February 24 and 25.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday returned to his hometown of Chicago to bemoan the epidemic of murderous gun violence that took 443 lives in the city last year.

Obama, speaking less than a mile from his house, said that "senseless" gun violence showed the urgency for Congress to pass his package of gun control reforms, which include a proposal to renew a ban on assault weapons.

U.S. President Barack Obama pledged Wednesday a "steadfast" commitment to defend Japan, including preventing nuclear attacks on his ally in the wake of North Korea's third nuclear test, the White House said.

In a telephone call, Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe discussed steps to respond to the "highly provocative violation of North Korea's international obligations, a White House statement said.

Experts from the U.N. atomic watchdog were holding talks in Tehran Wednesday aimed at reaching accord on inspections that would allow investigations into a possible military dimension of Iran's nuclear drive.

The discussions are taking place two weeks ahead of a new round of talks between Iran and six world powers in parallel diplomatic efforts, which are due to resume in Kazakhstan on February 26 after an eight-month hiatus.

President Barack Obama warned Tuesday that the looming budget cuts threatened by some of his opponents in Congress would jeopardize military readiness and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.

"That's why Democrats, Republicans, business leaders, and economists have already said that these cuts, known here in Washington as 'the sequester', are a really bad idea," Obama said, in his annual State of the Union address.

Warning that cyberattacks pose a danger to U.S. security, President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Tuesday designed to better protect critical infrastructure from computer hackers.

Obama, in his annual State of the Union speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, said the United States is facing a "rapidly growing threat from cyberattacks."

The United States will help its allies confront an evolving al-Qaida threat and be more transparent with the American people in the fight against terror groups, President Barack Obama said Tuesday.

Al-Qaida was now a "shadow" of the group that was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., Obama said in his annual State of the Union address.

U.S. President Barack Obama will announce in his State of the Union address Tuesday that he will pull 34,000 U.S. troops home from Afghanistan in the next year, a source familiar with his speech said.

The move will effectively halve the size of the current 66,000 strong U.S. force in Afghanistan, ahead of a final withdrawal of most foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon condemned Tuesday North Korea's nuclear test as "deeply destabilizing" and U.S. President Barack Obama called for swift and credible international action.

Ban condemned the nuclear weapons test as a "deeply destabilizing" provocation, his spokesman said Tuesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama will use his State of the Union address on Tuesday to call for dramatic cuts in nuclear arsenals around the world, The New York Times reported late Sunday.

Quoting unnamed administration officials, the newspaper said that in recent months Obama had secured agreement with the U.S. military that its nuclear force can be cut by roughly a third.