Obama, IMF chief agree on need to boost growth

VINEYARD HAVEN, Massachusetts (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde both feel the world economy needs further steps to boost growth in the short term, the White House said on Friday.

Obama will lay out proposals to boost hiring in a major speech after the September 5 U.S. Labor Day holiday, and has also said he wants lawmakers to seek deeper cuts in the deficit than mandated under a recent law to lift the U.S. debt ceiling.

Obama must lift growth and cut U.S. unemployment currently pinned above 9 percent to be confident of winning re-election next year.

"The President and the Managing Director agreed on the need for policies that foster growth and job creation in the near term, while securing medium-term fiscal consolidation," the White House said in a readout of a telephone call they held earlier on Friday.

"They also concurred on the importance of rebalancing global demand toward emerging markets," the White House said.

It was Obama's first conversation with the former French finance minister since she took the top IMF job over from her countryman Dominique Strauss-Kahn in July.

(Reporting by Alister Bull and Laura MacInnis, Editing by Sandra Maler and Eric Beech)