Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed hope Thursday that US president-elect Barack Obama would take immediate and concrete action to resolve the US financial crisis.

`Obama, who just won the elections with a political force never before seen in the United States ... will need to immediately resolve the US crisis, will need to make decisions to avoid a worsening of the situation,` Lula said in a speech to business leaders and ministers in his government.

`Now the crisis can be blamed on the current (US) government, but one year from now, if there is no resolution, it will be blamed on whoever took over,` Lula said.

`I believe Obama is intelligent enough to take immediate measures to prevent the crisis from spreading and growing larger still.`

But Lula also said he felt that `the worst of the crisis has passed.`

Brazil`s Finance Minister Guido Mantega also spoke about the challenges facing the new US president, saying Obama would need to act quickly to prevent a deep recession.

`Barack Obama has nearly the same challenge that faced (former US president Franklin) Roosevelt in 1933, when he found a country in the midst of a major crisis,` Mantega said, speaking of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

`The US economy then was wrecked by a recession, but Obama has the advantage because the United States has not yet entered recession,` the minister said.

`To be sure, his challenge is to prevent a very deep recession in such a way as to lead to a rapid recovery of the US economy.`

On Wednesday, Brazil congratulated Obama on his historic White House victory, with Foreign Minister Celso Amorim saying he hoped Obama`s administration would improve ties with Latin America.