US President Obama says he respects Britain's decision to leave EU

US President Barack Obama said on Friday he respected Britain's vote to leave the European Union, and that the United States' relationship with Britain would endure.

"The people of the United Kingdom have spoken, and we respect their decision," Obama said in a statement. "The United Kingdom and the European Union will remain indispensable partners of the United States even as they begin negotiating their ongoing relationship."

Britain has voted to leave the European Union, results from Thursday's referendum showed, a stunning repudiation of the nation's elites that deals the biggest blow to the European project of greater unity since World War Two.

World financial markets plunged as complete results showed a near 52-48 percent split for leaving. The vote created the biggest global financial shock since the 2008 economic crisis, this time with interest rates around the world already at or near zero, stripping policymakers of the means to fight it.

The pound suffered its biggest one-day fall in history, plunging more than 10 percent against the dollar to hit levels last seen in 1985. The chief ratings officer for Standard & Poor's told the Financial Times Britain's AAA credit rating was no longer tenable.

The vote will initiate at least two years of messy divorce proceedings with the EU, raise questions over London's role as a global financial capital and put huge pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to resign, though he pledged during the campaign to stay on whatever the result.