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Washington - President Barack Obama launched a 10-day trip to Asia on Friday aimed at boosting exports and creating US jobs, three days after voters punished his Democrats for stubbornly high unemployment.
Obama, who has said creating jobs is his top priority, received some encouraging news just before he left Washington.
The government reported faster-than-expected payroll growth, although the unemployment rate remained steady at 9.6%.
Obama called for "putting politics aside" in brief remarks at the White House where he kept up a conciliatory tone with victorious Republicans.
"We can't spend the next two years mired in gridlock. Other countries like China aren't standing still so we can't stand still either. We've got to move forward," Obama told reporters at the White House.
Obama will visit India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan on the tour that will blend trade talk and other economic diplomacy with assurances to Asian allies worried by an increasingly assertive China.
In India, Obama will attend a meeting along with US business leaders.
He will announce a "comprehensive partnership" including economic ties in Indonesia, attend a Group of 20 (G20) summit of global economic powers in Seoul and participate in an Asia-Pacific economic forum in Yokohama, Japan.
Rebuffed domestically by the loss of control of the House of Representatives to Republicans on Tuesday, Obama can count on a warm reception in Asia where leaders want American power to counter Beijing, although some observers questioned how much the trip can yield given the pressures at home.
"Obama is going to be too preoccupied domestically, and you won't see a more aggressive foreign policy going forward," said Amitabh Mattoo, professor of international politics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
Aides say Obama will raise the issue of China's yuan currency throughout the trip, as well as discuss North Korea's nuclear weapons and Chinese human rights when he meets with his Chinese counterpart during the G20.
US officials say Beijing keeps the yuan's value low against the dollar to aid exports at the expense of US jobs.
Regional tensions have also flared over territorial disputes and Chinese exports of rare earth minerals needed to make many high-tech products.
Obama wants to double US exports in five years and the administration is working to remove obstacles to a long-stalled US-South Korean free trade agreement in time for Obama's meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul.
Failure would send a negative signal about US openness to more trade, after an election campaign marked by protectionist rhetoric over China and outsourcing hubs like India.
"There are very high expectations (that Obama can deliver an FTA) in Korea, not just in Korea, but in the region," said Victor Cha, a senior adviser and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"The FTA is important in terms of perceptions of the US presence and leadership in Asia," Cha said.
Obama starts the trip with 3 1/2 days in India, the longest time he has spent in a foreign country since becoming president, underlining the importance of a relationship that analysts say must be a US focus.
"Indians and Americans on both sides of this relationship, particularly those in the private sector and business, believe that the relationship needs a jolt of energy and ambition, that the relationship has stalled somewhat and that there is a need for new ideas to propel this relationship forward," said Nicholas Burns, a retired US diplomat now at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
