By DPA
Washington : US President George W. Bush will attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Sydney next week hoping to expand trade ties and discuss the need to cooperate on security.
Bush is due to arrive in Australia Tuesday evening for the summit that extends through the end of the week. His appearance will mark the seventh time he has attended the annual gathering. He has not missed an APEC summit.
Dennis Wilder, Bush’s top adviser for Asia affairs on the National Security Council, said the president will push for broader trade, making progress on the Doha trade pact aimed at helping underdeveloped countries and a common approach on global warming.
Bush will hold bilateral meetings with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Bush will also discuss the effort to end North Korea’s nuclear programme under an agreement reached earlier this year. The need to stabilize Iraq and fend off the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan will also be on the agenda.
Australia has more than 2,500 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush will also protest the crackdown on democratic activists and dissidents in Myanmar, including the need to release the leading activist Aung San Suu Kyi, Wilder said.
During his meeting with Hu, Bush will raise the need for the international community to act against Iran and North Korea’s nuclear activities and the fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region in the last several years that has left an estimated 300,000 people dead.