Nations engaged in 'proxy wars' must end them - Obama

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday asked nations engaged in "proxy wars" to end them, warning that if communities are not allowed to co-exist, the "embers of extremism will continue to burn" causing sufferings to countless human beings and export of extremism overseas.

The Press Trust of India (PTI) reports that in his eighth and final address to the UN General Assembly as the US President, Obama admitted that the extremist and sectarian violence destabilising the Middle East and spreading elsewhere "will not be quickly reversed."

"No external power is going to be able to force different religious communities or ethnic communities to co-exist for long," Obama told the world leaders gathered here for the 71st UN General Assembly session.

"Until basic questions are answered about how communities co-exist, the embers of extremism will continue to burn. Countless human beings will suffer and extremism will continue to be exported overseas," he warned.

"Across-the-regions conflicts, we have to insist that all parties recognise a common humanity and the nations end proxy wars that fuel disorders," he said.

In his speech, Obama recounted the progress made in the last eight years of his presidency and said "from the depths of the greatest financial crisis of our times we coordinated a response to avoid further catastrophe and return the global economy to growth."

"We have taken away terrorist safe havens, strengthened the non-proliferation regime, resolved the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomacy. We opened relations with Cuba...and we welcome a democratically elected leader of Myanmar to this Assembly," he said. --BERNAMA