US President Barack Obama ends his maiden tour of Asia in Seoul on Thursday with North Korea's nuclear programme and trade expected to be the main focus of a summit with President Lee Myung-Bak.

Obama's visit to South Korea comes as a respite from an often-gruelling trip, as Seoul and Washington agree on most major issues despite niggling irritation over delayed US ratification of a trade pact with its key ally.

The leaders will have a formal summit, hold a press conference and have lunch before Obama greets some of the 28 500 US troops in South Korea, then boards Air Force One to return to Washington's political wars.

Obama was expected to renew a call for North Korea to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, after Pyongyang defied world powers by ditching the dialogue and staging a nuclear weapons test.

And as he draws closer to a fateful decision on whether to deploy tens of thousands more US troops to Afghanistan, Obama was also expected to welcome South Korea's expansion of its aid mission in the country.

South Korea is showing impatience however at US efforts to renegotiate a sweeping free trade agreement (FTA) signed almost 29 months ago but still awaiting ratification.

Obama has given few signs he will push hard for the pact in a US Congress that has soured on the idea of free trade as the worst economic crisis in decades grinds on, with the loss of millions of US jobs.

'I want to get the deal done'

"I want to get the deal done," said Obama in an interview with Fox News from Beijing, but did not offer a timetable.

"The question is whether we can get it done in the beginning of 2010, whether we can get it done at the end of 2010, there's still some details that need to be worked out.

"Overall, I think it's a potential good deal for US exporters. But there's certain sectors of the economy that aren't dealt with as effectively and that's something that I'm going to be talking to talking to President Lee about."

As a presidential candidate, Obama termed the pact, signed under former president George W. Bush, as "deeply flawed" and his administration has said it wants to further open South Korean beef and auto markets.

Seoul opposes any renegotiation of what would be the biggest US trade pact since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

Lee's spokesperson has called on Obama to take a "more aggressive" position on ratifying the pact.

Lee and Obama first met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in London in April, and the US leader welcomed his South Korean counterpart to the White House in June.

In a sign of the growing friendship between the two, Lee has prepared a set of unorthodox gifts for his visitor.

"Because Obama learned taekwondo when he was (an Illinois state) senator, a taekwondo uniform, a black belt and an honorary certificate will be presented to him as presidential gifts," said presidential spokesperson Park Sun-kyoo.

Obama will also take home a Korean cookbook in English for his wife Michelle, Park said.

At lunch after a joint press conference, the leaders will munch on a traditional Korean meal of bulgogi (beef), japchae (noodles) and other dishes served along with California wine.

US won't be 'cowed' by threats

North Korea has proved to be a repeated headache for the Obama White House, as it was for previous US administrations.

Obama said in Japan on Saturday that Washington would not be "cowed" by the North's nuclear threats, but was ready to offer the isolated country a secure and prosperous future in return for full denuclearisation.

Pyongyang has tested Obama this year with a string of missile launches, its second atomic weapons test and a number of hostile gestures towards South Korea.

The navies of North and South Korea engaged in a brief but intense fire fight last week after Seoul said a North Korean boat crossed the disputed sea border.

Since August, Pyongyang has put out peace feelers both to Seoul and Washington. Leader Kim Jong-Il has expressed readiness to return to the six-party forum if bilateral talks expected next month with the United States are satisfactory.

The US special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, will visit Pyongyang by the end of this year. But Washington stresses that his only goal is to bring the North back to the six-party forum, which groups the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.

Obama arrived in Seoul after stops in Japan and Singapore and his first trip as president to China.

AFP

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