Outgoing US Ambassador Douglas Kmiec, who resigned after being criticised by the State Department for spending too much time writing and speaking about his religious beliefs, believes President Barack Obama is doing a "superb job" and will almost certainly publicly endorse him in the 2012 US presidential election.

In an interview in today's The Sunday Times, Prof. Kmiec said Obama's record on health care, the economy and foreign policy were reasons why he should back him.

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

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

He said there remained one principal unresolved issue between the US and Malta – the Maltese government's reluctance to sign the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which is a Nato Partnership for Peace document that would set the jurisdiction rules in advance for US sailors visiting Malta.

He called Malta's divorce debate "fulsome" and said: "I think it is the kind of debate I would expect from a country that takes its faith seriously. I think the most important thing that the debate illustrates, whether you're for or against, is that you are for families."

Prof. Kmiec also revealed that his car accident in California last August which killed two of his friends, Sister Mary Campbell and Mgr John Sheriden, was caused by him fainting due to medication his takes for Parkinson's.

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