Obama arrives in Singapore for APEC summit

SINGAPORE, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Singapore Saturday to attend a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries.

The president arrived in time to attend the end of a dinner gathering of APEC leaders Saturday night and had plans to dive into a day of meeting and greeting regional leaders Sunday, including Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, The New York Times reported.

In his meeting with Medvedev, Obama is expected to urge Russia to stay on board with U.S. and European efforts to rein in Iran's nuclear program and to discuss ongoing efforts to produce a new pact to replace the expiring the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the U.S. newspaper said.

Obama will try to "engage" Asian economic powers at the Singapore summit, said Michael Froman, deputy U.S. national security adviser for international economic affairs.

He told reporters earlier Saturday in Tokyo that Obama would "engage with what is an important region to the U.S. economy."

Noting that 60 percent of U.S. exports go to APEC countries, Froman told reporters, "the APEC agenda is one that includes both a discussion of balanced and sustainable and inclusive growth, as well as trade liberalization."

Froman said Obama hopes "the APEC countries will embrace some of the outcomes of the (Group of 20) summit in Pittsburgh and talk about how they might apply them in this region."

The reference to "balanced growth" echoed points made in a speech Obama delivered earlier in Japan, in which he spoke of ensuring that the United States and Asia don't return to an "imbalanced" cycle of American consumer spending prompting Asian economies to view the United States solely as an export market.

Obama's first Asian trip as president will proceed from Singapore to Shanghai Sunday before moving to Beijing for talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.