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WASHINGTON : US President George W. Bush on Friday headed to an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru to work on progress in dismantling North Korea's nuclear programmes and seek a more united front on the global economic meltdown.
With Bush vastly unpopular at home and world leaders already looking to successor Barack Obama taking office January 20, spokeswoman Dana Perino warned Thursday that "I wouldn't expect a lot of news to be made on this trip."
The US president was to attend the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, and hold one-on-one talks with key US partners in aid-for-disarmament diplomacy with the secretive regime in Pyongyang.
It may be Bush's final foray overseas before the sun sets on his eight years in office -- there are no more scheduled international meetings, though the president could still spring an unannounced trip in the next two months.
But "this is a serious meeting, it is not a farewell," said Dan Price, the outgoing US president's assistant for international economic affairs and his special guide, or "sherpa," at the two-day summit.
Bush hoped to foster closer trade ties among APEC's 21 members and win support for the Group of 20 rich and major developing countries' statement of principles on the economic crisis, adopted after weekend talks in Washington.
Nine of the G20 countries are also APEC members.
Bush's schedule called for meetings with leaders of China, Japan, and South Korea, and he was also expected to sit down with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for the first time since Moscow's August war with Georgia.
Those countries, along with the United States and North Korea, have held six-way negotiations on ending the North's nuclear programmes, a diplomatic forum the US president has said will be a key part of his legacy.
Bush was also slated to hold talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, as well as Peruvian President Alan Garcia before returning to Washington on Sunday, roughly 48 hours after he arrives in Lima.
Bush's talks with Medvedev, unscheduled as yet because of logistical issues, will take up sore points in Russo-US ties, including US missile defense plans, and fallout from the Georgia war, said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
"We have some issues that we're going to need to work through," Johndroe said.
Bush was to hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday, then with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso -- first separately, then in three-way talks -- on Saturday.
Washington has pushed to schedule a meeting of top negotiators from the six parties -- China, Japan, North and South Korea, and Russia -- as quickly as possible to seal agreement on how to verify the North's disarmament.
Bush will also push for greater economic integration among APEC economies, which together account for 55 percent of global gross domestic product, nearly half of all world trade, and 41 percent of the world's population, said Price.
The United States, which has seen its trade with APEC soar from 1.2 trillion dollars in 2001 to nearly two trillion in 2007, worries that new free trade initiatives have "focused on Asia-first or Asia-only agreements," said Price.
APEC comprises Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
In his talks with Hu, Bush also expects to discuss Iran's suspect nuclear programme, turmoil in Zimbabwe and Sudan, pressure on Myanmar's military rulers to enact democratic reforms, Beijing's uneven rights record, and push China for more dialogue with the Dalai Lama, said Johndroe.
- AFP /ls
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