Warm reception likely for Obama at U.N.

UNITED NATIONS | President Obama’s popularity has slipped among Americans as he labors to pass a tough domestic agenda, but he can expect a warm welcome when he visits the United Nations this week.

Scores of world leaders are eager to hear Mr. Obama deliver his first speech to the world body and hope he will be more sympathetic to their needs and concerns than George W. Bush.

Where President Bush’s foreign-policy agenda was heavy on combating terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Mr. Obama is focusing on climate change, nonproliferation and development issues. Among other high-profile topics at the 64th session of the U.N. General Assembly: the world economy, education for girls, peacekeeping, curbing sexual violence and taming the U.N.’s insatiable appetite for paper.

Mr. Obama begins his visit with a summit Tuesday on climate change. It is part of a process leading to a December meeting in Copenhagen that aims to forge agreement between developed and developing nations on reducing carbon emissions.

The same day, Mr. Obama also will host a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in an effort to lay the groundwork for renewed negotiations on Middle East peace. The three-way meeting will take place immediately after Mr. Obama meets separately with each of the two leaders, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Saturday.

Also Tuesday, he hosts a lunch for leaders of sub-Saharan African countries. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan E. Rice told reporters in Washington on Friday that the president would focus on “job creation, especially for young people; creating a more conducive climate for trade and investment; and ways to mobilize African agriculture to create jobs and help feed the continent.”

On Wednesday, when the General Assembly formally convenes, Mr. Obama will speak third, after Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil. Mr. Obama will be followed by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who is also making his first appearance at the U.N.

Ms. Rice gave few details about Mr. Obama’s speech, saying only that the president would “talk about our mutual responsibilities to make progress on several key priorities that will advance our common security and prosperity.”

U.N. diplomats who used to listen to Mr. Bush with stiff politeness are more enthusiastic about his successor.

Even Mr. Ban, who was chosen secretary-general with the strong support of the Bush administration, spoke approvingly of Mr. Obama’s interest in climate issues compared with that of his predecessor.

“The very fact that President Obama is coming to address the General Assembly in this summit meeting for the first time as president of United States [is remarkable],” he said. “You have seen that former President Bush has not come to this [climate change] meeting, except by attending the private working dinner.”

“Therefore,” Mr. Ban added, “I expect and count on strong leadership and commitment of President Obama. That’s critically important.”

Many delegations, including those from Libya, Lebanon, France and the Palestinian Authority, said they were relieved that, as one diplomat put it, Mr. Bush’s “lecturing” tone would be replaced by Mr. Obama’s open-mindedness. The diplomat spoke on the condition of anonymity, a common practice at the U.N.

Damptey Asare, a counselor at Ghana’s U.N. mission, was happy to go on the record.

“I want to hear his speech. I think he is very supportive of the U.N. agenda,” he said. “We want to see strong American leadership here; America brings so much” to meetings and informal discussions. Mr. Obama “must hear our concerns.”

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