WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has said American leadership was never more necessary in the world than now and there is no competition to it from countries like China and Russia.

"The truth of the matter is that the world has always been messy. In part, we're just noticing now because of social media and our capacity to see in intimate detail the hardships that people are going through," Obama said at a Democratic Party fund raiser in New York.

"The good news is that American leadership has never been more necessary, and there's really no competition out there for the ideas and the values that can create the sort of order that we need in this world," he said, adding that countries like China and Russia are nowhere near the US.