Obama: Stronger dollar would ease energy costs

PARMA, Ohio (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Tuesday that the softness in the dollar was contributing to higher costs for gasoline and if it were to rise that would ease some of the problem with costly fuel.

"If we had a strengthening dollar, that would help," Obama, a Democratic senator from Illinois, told a town hall forum in Parma, Ohio.

He spoke in response to a question about whether he thought the United States should go back on the gold standard. Obama said he did not favor that but said the best way to help the dollar would be to improve the U.S. economy.

"The way to strengthen the dollar is for us to get our economy back in shape," he said.

(Reporting by Caren Bohan)