Obama embarks on debut Asia mission

Barack Obama embarked yesterday on his first tour of Asia as US president, bound for Japan before later stops in Singapore, China and South Korea on a week-long trip.

Mr Obama will seek to counter charges that America's influence in the world's most populous region is fading amid the rise of China and the distraction of US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It's a common perception in the region that US influence has been on the decline in the last decade, while Chinese influence has been increasing," said Mr Obama's top East Asia aide Jeffrey Bader.

"One of the messages that the president will be sending in his visit is that we are an Asia-Pacific nation and we are there for the long haul."

After refuelling in Alaska, where he will address US troops, Mr Obama's first stop will be Japan, where he will make a major address in Tokyo tomorrow.

He will seek to cement ties with new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and draw similarities between their respective crusades for political change, while dampening a row over the relocation of a US military base on Okinawa.

Mr Obama will then debut at the Asia Pacific Cooperation forum summit in Singapore, and attend the first-ever joint meeting of a US president and leaders of all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Before departing, Mr Obama said he would seek to try and tackle the imbalances in global growth in which Asia relies too heavily on exports for economic growth and the United States too much on spending.

Announcing a White House meeting in December to tackle America's soaring unemployment, Mr Obama said his discussions with APEC leaders would be about "a strategy for growth that is both balanced and broadly shared.

"It's a strategy in which Asian and Pacific markets are open to our exports and one in which prosperity around the world is no longer as dependent on American consumption and borrowing, but rather more on American innovation and products."

In Singapore, Mr Obama will also have to deal with Myanmar's suppression of democracy, which has long disrupted US ties with Southeast Asia.

After years of attempting to isolate Myanmar, Washington is now engaging the junta, but a private Obama meeting with Prime Minister Thein Sein is unlikely.