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American Pesident Barack Obama seeks export opportunities in fast-growing Asia TOKYO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will promise greater U.S. engagement in Asia and push for deeper trade ties with the region in a major speech in the Japanese capital on Saturday, administration officials said.

Tokyo is the first stop in Obama's nine-day Asian tour, which also takes him to Singapore for an Asia-Pacific economic summit, to China for talks likely to feature climate change and trade imbalances, and to South Korea, where North Korea's nuclear ambitions will be in focus.

"This is obviously the fastest growing economic region in the world... It supports millions of jobs, a huge amount of our trade," Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, said at a briefing where he previewed the speech for reporters.

"There is potential there for more commerce between us, including the potential to create more American jobs through exports," he said.

Obama is scheduled to deliver his speech at 10 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) on Saturday to an audience of about 1,500 people at Tokyo's Suntory Hall.

He will also discuss U.S. ties in the region on security concerns, which Rhodes listed as "climate change, nuclear proliferation, extremism" and its plans for increased engagement in regional groupings, such as APEC.

Although Obama will talk about China more during his visit to Shanghai and Beijing from Sunday to Wednesday, the speech will address U.S.-Chinese relations.


RISING CHINA

"You'll hear him speak to our partnership with China on a range of global issues, such as the global economic recovery, climate change and nuclear proliferation," Rhodes said.

Fresh government figures on the U.S. trade deficit could add urgency to Obama's efforts to seek greater export opportunities in China and other Asian countries.

America's trade gap ballooned in September by 18.2 percent to $36.5 billion, according to U.S. Commerce Department figures released in Washington on Friday.

It was the largest monthly increase in more than 10 years and was driven both by higher oil prices and a surge in imports from China.

The import growth may reinforce U.S. concerns that China's currency is undervalued against the dollar, which U.S. manufacturers say gives Chinese companies an unfair trade advantage.

Obama will also underscore the strength of Washington's alliance with Tokyo in the speech.

On Friday, he and Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, pledged to revitalise their strained security alliance as they adapt to a rising China, set to overtake Japan as the world's No. 2 economy.

But they left unresolved a feud over a U.S. military base on Japan's southern Okinawa island that has frayed Washington's ties with Hatoyama's government. The government has pledged to steer a diplomatic course less dependent on its ally and forge closer relations with Asia.