WASHINGTON: Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso wins the honor of becoming the first foreign leader to visit Barack Obama's White House on Tuesday as the new administration moves to ease the key ally's worries.

The leaders of the world's two largest economies are expected to look at ways to fight the worsening global slowdown amid another round of bloodletting on stock markets.

But experts believe Obama's invitation to Aso is largely symbolic -- designed to relieve concerns in Japan that the United States is overlooking its longtime ally in light of China's rapid growth.

"They heard the alarm bells that had been ringing that Japan needs to be reassured about the strength of the alliance," said Ralph Cossa, head of the Pacific Forum of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"Everybody talks about China, but Japan is still the world's second largest economy. Japan is where the money is and if you want to deal with the international financial crisis, you've got to have the US and Japan in synch."

The trip comes as Aso faces dismal poll ratings and speculation mounts that he will soon have to call a high-risk general election. But experts say the invitation is more about US commitment to Japan, not Aso.

Aso -- visiting Washington a week before close ally Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown -- will hold talks at the White House hours before Obama gives his first address to a joint session of Congress.

Aso's trip was announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also made Tokyo her first foreign destination after taking office.

"The bilateral relationship between the United States and Japan is a cornerstone in our efforts around the world," she said in Tokyo.

For the Japanese, the remarks were particularly welcome coming from Clinton. She sparked concern as a presidential candidate when she wrote that the United States and China will have "the most important bilateral relationship in the world in this century".

Some Japanese policymakers also have less than fond memories of her husband Bill Clinton, the last US president from Obama's Democratic Party, who pressed Tokyo hard on trade issues during Japan's recession and flew over Japan on a major visit to China in 1998.

While Japanese leaders had overall good relations with Obama's predecessor George W. Bush, tensions grew last year as the United States pushed ahead with a denuclearization deal with North Korea.

The United States removed North Korea from a blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism -- a step opposed by Japan, which is pressing Pyongyang to reveal more about Japanese civilians the communist regime kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies.

Joseph Nye, a prominent Harvard University professor who may be tapped as the new US ambassador to Japan, wrote in an opinion piece last year of a sense of "malaise" in relations between Tokyo and Washington.

Nye argued that the new administration should work to make Japan "a much more equal and important ally" by focusing on non-military ways they could work together, such as fighting climate change and pandemics.

Under Bush, the United States encouraged Japan to take a greater role in global security and Tokyo sent troops to Iraq -- a landmark step for a nation officially pacifist under its post-World War II constitution.

Robert Dujarric, head of Temple University's Institute of Contemporary Japanese Studies, said Japan's main issues with Obama will be economic -- but that the invitation to Aso was mostly a matter of good manners.

"It costs nothing to show 'respect' to the Japanese. It's not like the Chinese care if Clinton stops in Tokyo before Beijing or if Aso gets to the White House first," he said.

Both George W. Bush and Clinton met with Canada's prime minister as their first White House guest. Obama flew to Ottawa on Thursday on his maiden foreign trip.

The first president Bush on taking office in 1989 met first with the Japanese prime minister, Noboru Takeshita. In a potential omen for Aso, Takeshita was forced out of office within months.

- AFP/yt