Outgoing American Ambassador Douglas Kmiec, who resigned after being criticised by the State Department for spending too much time focusing on religious beliefs, says he will almost certainly publicly endorse Barack Obama in the 2012 US presidential election.

“I would say there is a 98 per cent chance of endorsing the President, coupled with the statement that I think the President is doing a great job,” he tells The Sunday Times in an interview today.

Prof. Kmiec, a prominent conservative Catholic law professor who once worked as President Ronald Reagan’s legal counsel, had endorsed Mr Obama in the 2008 presidential election and helped him win over some Catholic and conservative votes.

“I think Mr Obama is doing a superb job. He’s someone who has made good on his principal promises against substantial headwinds,” he says, citing the President’s way of tackling of the country’s difficult economic situation, the extension of health insurance and his performance on the international stage as reasons why he should support him.

Prof. Kmiec stressed that the State Department never really understood the mandate given to him by Mr Obama, which was the promotion of interfaith dialogue in Malta.

As he leaves office, Prof. Kmiec said there remained one principal unresolved issue between the US and Malta – the Maltese government’s reluctance to sign the Status of Forces Agreement, which is a Nato Partnership for Peace document.

Prof. Kmiec also reveals that his car accident in California last August which killed two of his friends, was caused after he fainted because of medication he takes for Parkinson’s disease.

“I had a low heart rate, and the low heart rate combined with this medication caused me to faint for four seconds and the car slipped off the road and into that ravine,” he says.

Prof. Kmiec leaves Malta on Tuesday and returns to Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California, where he will resume teaching in autumn.