'Pacific' President Obama to speak to Asia

America's first "Pacific president" Barack Obama will reach out to Asia Saturday in a major speech seeking to reassert the United States as a regional powerhouse and counter-balance to a rising China.

US President Barack Obama (L) shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama prior to meetings at Kantei in Tokyo. Obama insisted on Friday that the United States was a "Pacific" power and vowed to deepen its engagement in the region as he set foot in Asia for the first time as US president.

Obama, making his first trip to Asia as president, will focus on the economy, climate change and common security challenges that Washington shares with Asian nations including nuclear proliferation, extremism and North Korea.

He will dwell on major regional players such as China and the US relationship with Japan, which he sees as a foundation of peace and prosperity in Asia, and also seek to widen US engagement with Southeast Asian nations.

Related article: Obama APEC talks "He begins from the premise that... the future of the United States in the 21st century is inextricably linked to Asia and to the Pacific region," said Obama speechwriter Ben Rhodes, striking the major symbolic theme of Obama's visit.

Many regional observers, and even some US officials, say Washington's influence in Asia has waned in recent years as it has been consumed by its anti-terror campaign and sapping wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But Obama is keen to reassert the United States as a major economic and diplomatic player and as a guarantor of Asian security with its tens of thousands of forward-deployed troops.

The speech, to a 1,500-strong audience at Tokyo's Suntory Hall, will set the tone for Obama's debut trip to a dynamic region that is pulling the world out of recession, even as the mighty US economy lumbers slowly out of crisis.

Obama can't outrun stormy US politics Obama will stress his childhood years in Hawaii, a US gateway to Asia, and in Indonesia, using his unusual personal story to seek common ground with foreigners, as he did in his landmark address to the Muslim world in June.

"He is the first Pacific president that the United States has had -- lived for a time in Indonesia after being born in Hawaii," said Rhodes, who had a major hand in both setpiece addresses.

"His experience there very much helped to shape who he is, so he feels a personal connection to this part of the world."

Despite the wide-ranging speech, aides said Obama will not specifically mention Tibet, amid accusations that Washington had soft-pedalled the dispute to placate China.

With an eye on multiple political challenges back home, including crushing 10 percent unemployment and economic blight, Obama will also argue that Asia supports millions of US jobs.

The idea of US free trade with Asia often gets short shrift in Washington -- with Obama's political room for manoeuvre cut to almost zero on free trade pacts -- including with South Korea -- as critics warn of the threat to US jobs from low-wage Asian economies.

Rhodes said Obama would discuss the idea of rebalancing the global economy -- code for calling on nations such as China to wean themselves off cheap exports to US consumers and to build more sustainable domestic demand.

The idea of "rebalancing" also calls for Asian powers to open up more markets to US products, and may not be a message regional leaders want to hear -- especially given American foot-dragging on free trade.

Obama arrived in Tokyo on Friday and met Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, lauding the US-Japan alliance and signalling flexibility on the thorny issue of the relocation of a US military base on the island of Okinawa.

Later, Obama heads to Singapore for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meetings and he will also host the first-ever leaders summit between the US president and all 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

Previous efforts to hold such talks foundered over the presence of US foe Burma, which Obama is now trying to engage.

Obama will fly on to Shanghai Sunday on his debut visit to China, and then moves to Beijing to meet President Hu Jintao.

He wraps up his visit in South Korea next week.