Obama spent a whopping 700,000 dlrs for his Berlin speech last summer

Washington, Nov 2 : Last summer, while on a European tour, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama paid a whopping seven lakh dollars to a Berlin-based event management firm for erecting a stage for him to deliver a speech.

The job included staging, sound and lighting services to help Obama deliver a speech last summer in Berlin, where he declared himself a "citizen" of both the US and the world, the Daily Times quoted a Washington Times report as saying.

Billed as "a highlight" of Obama's July trip to Europe, the speech - delivered before hundreds of thousands of people in front of the historic Victory Column in Tiergarten - was organized by the Berlin-based company Mediapool.

The event opened much like a rock concert, with warm-up performances from the band Reamonn and reggae singer Patrice, added the report.

According to a web page of the firm, it specializes in theater and event management and is listed as a disbursement recipient on Obama's most recent campaign expenditures report.

The company prominently displays pictures of the Obama speech and rally on its marketing pages and lists the event at the top of its projects page.

ANI