US lost a `true friend` with Thatcher death: Barack Obama

Washington: US President Barack Obama said after the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher Monday that America had lost a "true friend" and the world a champion of freedom and liberty.

"As an unapologetic supporter of our transatlantic alliance, she knew that with strength and resolve we could win the Cold War and extend freedom`s promise," Obama said in a written statement. Obama -- who turned 29 and was elected editor of the Harvard Law Review in 1990, the year Thatcher lost power -- said Britain`s first woman leader was an example to girls that "there is no glass ceiling that can`t be shattered." "With the passing of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend," Obama said. "As prime minister, she helped restore the confidence and pride that has always been the hallmark of Britain at its best." The US leader noted that Americans would never forget Thatcher standing shoulder to shoulder with president Ronald Reagan to end the Cold War, and she was a reminder that the currents of history can be shaped with "moral conviction, unyielding courage and iron will." "Michelle and I send our thoughts to the Thatcher family and all the British people as we carry on the work to which she dedicated her life -- free peoples standing together, determined to write our own destiny." AFP