asianews

US President Barack Obama will make his debut Asian tour next month, visiting Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea for a flurry of talks on pressing economic issues, trade and global security.

US President Barack Obama (R) and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama (L) are pictured in September 2009. Obama will make his debut Asian tour next month, visiting Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea between November 12 and 19, the White House.

The trip will mark Obama's most testing foray yet into the vital US relationship with top Asian powers, and see him push for backing on key foreign policy priorities including the nuclear showdowns with North Korea and Iran.

But it will not include a visit to Indonesia, where he spent four childhood years, a period he has often referenced fondly in speeches and in his outreach to the Muslim world.

Obama will leave behind a packed and sometimes troubled domestic agenda when he leaves Washington on November 11 and remains in the region for eight days.

"The president... will be traveling to Asia next month to strengthen our cooperation with this vital part of the world on a range of issues of mutual interest," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Obama will touch down first in Japan, then attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) summit in Singapore.

He will hold what the White House billed as the first formal talks between a US leader and all 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) leaders -- which could include a rare encounter with Burma's military rulers.

The president will then visit Beijing and Shanghai and make a last stop in South Korea.

Obama has made strenuous personal efforts to set a new US direction towards Europe, the Middle East and Latin America and is yet to devote similar time to Asia.

But his emerging regional policy is rich in diplomatic engagement and is aimed at containing the North Korean nuclear threat, improving ties with China and maintaining warm US relations with allies South Korea and Japan.

Obama has also decided to reverse US policy and engage Burma, following the failure of previous policies which included both sanctions and incentives for the military-ruled country to embrace democracy.

The White House said Obama's Tokyo visit between November 12 and 13 will include his second round of talks with new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama after the two men met at the United Nations last month.

He will then be in Singapore between November 13 to 15 for APEC and Asean talks and one-on-one talks with regional leaders.

Washington sees Asean as a possible counterweight to rising Chinese power throughout Southeast Asia, and in July signed a friendship pact with the group amid claims the previous Bush administration had neglected it.

Obama's visit to China between November 15 and 18 will include his first visits as president to Beijing and the booming metropolis of Shanghai and a third set of talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Washington has warmly praised China for its cooperation in efforts to tighten sanctions against North Korea following the Stalinist state's nuclear test in May.

But Beijing has yet to fall fully into line with a US drive to frame a crippling range of sanctions against Iran, should it refuse demands from a group of key powers, including China, to end its nuclear program.

Obama was also accused of rebuffing the Dalai Lama during his current US visit to avoid antagonizing Beijing. The White House denied the charge and said the president would meet Tibet's exiled spiritual leader later in the year.

Gibbs said Obama's talks in China would focus on regional and global issues, including security, nonproliferation, energy and climate change.

The president will wrap up his visit to Asia in Seoul, South Korea, between November 18 and 19 when North Korea's nuclear challenge and the US nuclear alliance will dominate talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.

While in South Korea, Obama will also meet service members from the US garrison monitoring the uneasy Cold War truce with Stalinist North Korea.

There had been expectations Obama would travel this year to Indonesia, where he spent part of his childhood after his divorced late mother married an Indonesian.

Gibbs said that Obama met Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh last month, and the two leaders agreed that it made most sense for the visit to take place next year.

"They agreed on the importance of having a visit that would showcase the importance of a growing US-Indonesian bilateral relations," Gibbs said.