Former US national security adviser Henry Kissinger praises President Barack Obama's realpolitik approach to address the country's global issues.

Speaking to the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel, Kissinger endorsed Obama's efforts meant to deal with US's international concerns including its relationship with the Muslim world.

"Obama is like a chess player who is playing simultaneous chess and has opened his game with an unusual opening. Now he's got to play his hand as he plays his various counterparts," he was quoted as saying by the magazine on Monday.

"We haven't gotten beyond the opening game move yet. I have no quarrel with the opening move," Kissinger added.

The former US Secretary of State referred to the US president's June speech in Cairo, Egypt, which he described as positive.

Kissinger told the magazine that each country has "objective circumstances without which foreign policy cannot be conducted."

"The art of good foreign policy is to understand and to take into consideration the values of a society, to realize them at the outer limit of the possible."

The 86-year-old German-born veteran politician approved the 'pragmatic' policies initiated by the US administration.

Kissinger, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is renowned for his role in providing 'practical' counsel to a number of US presidents since the 1960s.

Obama who took over from rightists George W. Bush has vowed to bring a major overhaul to the 'tarnished' US image worldwide.

ARQN/SME/MMN