New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has flatly denied that he will launch an independent presidential bid in 2012.

"I'm not going to run for president," he said, appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, adding a few seconds later for emphasis: "No way, no how."

"I'm not looking at the possibility of running," he told NBC's David Gregory.

Bloomberg said people "should be encouraged" by the compromise agreement to extend tax cuts and unemployment benefits that President Obama and Republican congressional leaders reached last week.

"At least both sides of the aisle and both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue have come together to do something in a bipartisan way,' he said. "And I'm sure the president would have liked other things, but the real world of governing is to do what is possible and everybody getting something, nobody getting 100 percent of what they want."

And throughout the interview Sunday, Bloomberg expressed sympathy for Obama.

"This president has to succeed. We all have an enormous amount of capital invested in his success," the mayor said. "His success is the country's success."

He said voters unhappy with Obama will have a chance to vote for someone else in two years "but right now we should all pull together... and make sure that this president is successful."

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