Obama wraps up G-20, comes to Japan for APEC summit

US President Barack Obama arrived in Japan today for a Pacific Rim summit and meetings with other world leaders, after attending the Group of 20 talks in South Korea.

Obama will take part in the weekend Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, hosted by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and also attended by China's President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Air Force One touched down at Tokyo's Haneda Airport from Seoul, where the G20 summit yielded an agreement to avoid tit-for-tat currency devaluations and trade protectionism.

However, China's strong objections to putting the brakes on its juggernaut export industries undermined a US push to redress imbalances in global trade.

APEC, a forum which reaches from China to Chile and represents more than half the world's gross domestic product, has ambitions of creating a vast free trade zone taking in some 40 per cent of the world's population.

But efforts to bring down barriers to trade and investment could be overshadowed at the summit in Yokohama, Japan's second-largest city, by a number of diplomatic feuds, notably between Japan and China.

The two neighbours have been locked in a territorial dispute for more than two months, triggered by the September 8 arrest of a Chinese trawler captain whose vessel collided with Japanese patrol boats in disputed waters.

In comments to a Japanese newspaper published Friday, Obama stressed the need for stable ties among the United States, Japan and China, and called for the two Asian giants to resolve their "outstanding differences".

"The United States, China and Japan represent the world's three largest economies and, thus, we all share an interest in promoting security and prosperity with each other and throughout the region," he said.

The Japan-US relationship has also been strained over the past year, but Obama assured Japan that their alliance will remain strong despite a dispute over the fate of a controversial air base that helped topple Kan's predecessor.

Obama is expected to meet separately with Kan and Medvedev on the sidelines of the summit.

Medvedev also plans to meet Japanese leader Kan in Yokohama, despite a wrangle this month over his recent visit -- the first by a Russian leader -- to one of four Pacific islands at the heart of a territorial dispute.