President George W. Bush tried to reassure nervous Asian allies on Thursday that he remains committed to opening up global trade markets despite humiliating losses in US elections that could weaken his hand.
Bush flew to Singapore at the start of a three-nation trip trying to shore up his international standing a week after his Republicans lost control of Congress to Democrats, traditional critics of his trade liberalisation policies.
"We hear voices calling us for us to retreat from the world," Bush said, taking a veiled swipe at Democratic opponents, in a speech at Singapore's National University. "These are the old temptations of isolationism and protectionism and America must reject them."
The centrepiece of his trip will be a Pacific Rim economic summit hosted by Vietnam, a former foe turned trading partner. Bush on Friday begins his first visit to Hanoi, where he will try to bolster a fragile coalition pressing North Korea to curb its nuclear programme.
Seeking to ease concerns that political weakness will prevent him from delivering on free trade, Bush said: "America will remain engaged in Asia because our interests depend on the expansion of freedom and opportunity in this region."
Bush's path could be rocky in his final two years in office. He has only until mid-2007 to make trade deals under 'fast-track' authority that a new Democrat-controlled Congress is almost certain to let expire.
Bush already suffered an embarrassing blow when a historic bill to normalise trade with communist Vietnam failed to win enough votes in the US House of Representatives this week.
In his first international foray since the November 7 polls, Bush assured Asian leaders that the United States remained a reliable partner in confronting North Korea, fighting terrorism and grappling with a host of other issues.
He also appealed to the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum, ahead of its weekend summit, to help revive the Doha round of global trade talks, which collapsed in July after clashes over subsidies and farm tariffs.
In a draft of the ministerial statement, Apec members, who together account for nearly half of world trade, put pressure on their own leaders to get the Doha round back on track.
Bush also said a free-trade zone encompassing all the Asia-Pacific countries "deserves serious consideration," despite a rebuff of a US bid to make the longstanding proposal a key part of this year's Apec gathering. Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the first Asian leader to meet Bush on this trip, offered no hint of concern about the direction of US policy. "Our interests are aligned," he told the president on Thursday.
"Asian leaders will be looking at President Bush's body language," said Michael Green, a Washington-based Asia expert. "They're going to be all looking to see how he plays the game after this political setback." Another key indicator will be whether Bush can turn up the heat on North Korea ahead of renewed six-party talks with Pyongyang after its first nuclear test last month.
Bush reiterated any transfer of nuclear weapons by North Korea would be a "grave threat to the United States" and it would be held accountable. He said it was a positive sign that Pyongyang agreed to return to talks and "we will do our part."
Bush's trip is overshadowed by the Iraq war. The Republicans' election losses were seen as a rebuke to his Iraq policy, and pressure is mounting for a change of course.
Bush urged resolve in the fight against Islamic militancy that threatens security in parts of Southeast Asia and is expected to hit that message even harder in next week's visit to Indonesia, which is battling al Qaeda-linked militants. Behind closed doors in Hanoi, some Asian leaders were expected to raise concerns about China's rising power.
Bush will become the second US president to visit Vietnam - after Bill Clinton - since the war there that traumatised the United States a generation ago and his trip is bound to raise comparisons between the Vietnam conflict and the Iraq war.
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