U.S. President Barack Obama gestures during a closing press conference at the G20 Summit in Seoul, South Korea Friday, Nov. 12, 2010. At the end of their two-day summit, the leaders of the Group of 20 rich and developing economies _ including President Barack Obama and China's Hu Jintao _ issued a watered-down statement that only said they agreed to refrain from "competitive devaluation" of currencies. (AP Photo/Yonhap News Agency)View more photos

SEOUL, South Korea -- Rebuffed by leading economic powers that wouldn't back his call for a plan to end global trade imbalances, PresidentBarack Obama Friday lashed out at China over what much of the world thinks is currency manipulation to give it a home field advantage.

"The issue of the (yuan) is one that is an irritant not just to the United States, but is an irritant to a lot of China's trading partners and those who are competing with China to sell goods around the world," Obama told reporters at the end of a conference by the Group of 20 leading and developing countries.

"It is undervalued. And China spends enormous amounts of money intervening in the market to keep it undervalued," he said.

It was the harshest tone Obama has taken toward the world's second-biggest economy behind the U.S., and came against a backdrop of Democrats on Capitol Hill pushing legislation that would label China a currency manipulator so that the U.S. can bring trade complaints.

Until now, the administration has been loath to charge China with undervaluing its currency to give an unfair trade advantage to its manufacturers -- not only because Beijing is a major holder of U.S. debt, but also because it represents a vast burgeoning market that may hold the key to boosting U.S. exports. In addition, China could take retaliatory measures.

Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had hoped to push their call for restoring balance in world trade, during the two day Seoul talks, seeing a "rebalancing" as crucial for creating more U.S. jobs.

However, the final communique of the G-20 conference contained only general language and a call for future review on two major areas -- stopping export-oriented countries from devaluing their currency and establishing warning levels for nations' deficit and surplus levels.

White House officials described the document as a step in the right direction, but coming after Obama's inability to break the earlier impasse over a free trade agreement with South Korea, it added up to a modest advance if any.

The bruising series of meetings suggested that as the U.S. struggles to exit its economic downturn, and emerging economies continue to post big growth, the ability of U.S. leaders to push through the U.S. agenda on the world stage has been clipped.

"We have had outsized influence over world affairs for a century now," Obama told reporters. "And you are now seeing a situation in which a whole host of other countries are doing very well and coming into their own, and naturally they are going to be more assertive in terms of their interests and ideas."

Although Obama described that development as "a healthy thing," the G-20 highlighted the tensions between the United States and China.

Many U.S. officials contend that China's decision to keep the value of the yuan low -- some studies say by 20 percent versus the dollar -- has both hampered the U.S. economy and fueled global trade disparities.

There had been little expectation of big announcements about currency, because the Chinese government has made it clear it won't revalue quickly, and though the communique said the G-20 nations agreed there should be a move toward market-driven exchange rates, it gave no indication of when or how that might happen.

The communique was similarly vague about the issue of countries adopting targets to keep deficits and surpluses within a set percentage of their gross domestic product.

The document cited a need for "indicative guidelines" to counter "persistently large imbalances," but it included no actual figures. Instead, the G-20 leaders agreed to continue mulling over the matter "with progress to be discussed by our Finance Minister and Central Bank Governors in the first half of 2011."

Speaking with Canadian reporters, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, "I think it's fair to say we did not resolve those issues here."

A senior Obama administration official who met with reporters on the G-20 sidelines, speaking on the condition of anonymity to give him more room to comment, repeated the administration line that the communique is imperfect but a good start.

"Of course ... the ultimate test over time is, do countries actually change their policies at a pace and a level that increases the odds that we get stronger growth? So you won't know until you see how this develops over time," the official said. "But you have to start with the basic framework of consensus. And we think we achieved that."

The official added: "You've got to live in the real world."

China and Germany, the world's largest exporters, had signaled early on that they're unenthusiastic about adopting specific guidelines for trade balances. They repeatedly criticized the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision this month to buy $600 billion of Treasury bonds, saying the move was intended to lower the dollar and help American exports.

An article carried by Xinhua, the Chinese state newswire, said Friday that after the Fed move there were growing "concerns ... about the stability of the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency."

Still, Obama and his team said the G-20 meeting should be viewed in the longer term.

The communique and its 38 pages of plans included agreement on revamping the International Monetary Fund to give emerging markets more of a voting share and a bigger presence on the IMF's executive board -- the result of discussions at earlier G-20 meetings. It also called for a long list of measures such as support for free trade, tax overhauls in developing countries and anti-corruption efforts -- though without any powers of enforcement, the statements were more suggestions than edicts.

"We should not anticipate that every time countries come together that we are doing some revolutionary thing," Obama told reporters. "Instead of hitting home runs, sometimes we're going to hit singles. But they're really important singles."

Soon after, Obama said he had to leave to catch a plane -- he was headed to Japan for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. So was Chinese President Hu Jintao.

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FILE - In this April 9, 2010 file photo, the Supreme Court is seen in Washington. The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military to remain in place while a federal appeals court considers the issue. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)View more photos

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Friday refused to halt enforcement of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy while its constitutionality is under appeal in federal court in California.

The justices, in a brief order, denied an appeal filed by the Log Cabin Republicans, who insisted that the ban on openly gay service members is unconstitutional and should be ended immediately.

The high court noted that Justice Elena Kagan did not participate in the decision. There were no dissents.

The court's refusal to take up the issue now means it will be a year or two at least before the constitutional challenge can be finally resolved. Congress could vote to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" in the lame-duck session, but Senate Republicans have so far blocked the issue from coming to a vote.

Six years ago, the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay and lesbian political group, sued and contended the policy was unfair to gays who wanted to serve in the military, and was also harmful to the military, which had lost the service of thousands of qualified officers. In September, U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips agreed and ruled the policy unconstitutional.

A few weeks later, she went a step further and ordered the Defense Department to immediately suspend enforcement of the policy. The Justice Department appealed, and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the judge's injunction on Nov. 1 and said the military may continue to enforce its policy while the appeals go forward.

It is typical for federal judges to permit federal laws to stay in force while their constitutionality is challenged.

But the Log Cabin Republicans filed an appeal last week that urged the Supreme Court to intervene and to reinstate Judge Phillips' order. That plea was lodged with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who oversees the 9th Circuit. Friday's order said the motion had been referred to the full court, which in turn denied it.

The government appealed Phillips' ruling that declared "don't ask, don't tell" unconstitutional, and the 9th Circuit is expected to hear the case early next year.

The Obama administration has been sharply criticized by gay-rights advocates for appealing the district court's ruling. In their legal briefs, Justice Department lawyers stressed the "don't ask" policy was written into federal law in 1993 and cannot be removed by the administration. Under the Constitution, the president has the duty to ensure the laws are "faithfully executed."

The law says a service member will be discharged if he or she has "engaged in (or) attempted to engage in ... a homosexual act" or has "stated that he or she is a homosexual or bisexual or words to that effect." Military regulations, however, say a "service member's sexual orientation is considered a personal and private matter and is not a bar to continued service."

Opinion surveys have found that most Americans favor repealing the ban and allowing openly gay persons to serve in the armed forces. By Dec. 1, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates is due to receive a survey of military members and their families on the issue, and early reports say most respondents would not be troubled by having openly gay soldiers in the ranks.

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