Roh embarks on visit to Europe, U.S.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on left for Greece on Sunday as the first leg of his 14-day swing through European countries and the U.S., Roh's office Cheong Wa Dae said.

Roh is to visit Greece until Tuesday, followed by Romania till Thursday, then Finland from Thursday to Saturday, after which he will attend the 6th Asia-Europe Meeting summit slated for Sept. 10-11 in Finland, said Cheong Wa Dae.

The president will then visit Washington for a summit with U.S. President George W. Bush on Sept. 14, it said.

President Roh's trip to Greece, Romania and Finland will mark the first visit to the three European countries by South Korea's president since the country's establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties with them in 1961, 1990 and 1973, respectively.

Roh and Greek President Karolos Papoulias are scheduled to hold a summit on Monday to discuss ways to enhance bilateral ties in the fields of marine transportation, shipbuilding, tourism and port modernization, Cheong Wa Dae said.

In a summit with Romanian President Traian Basescu on Wednesday, Roh will call for increased bilateral trade and closer relations in the atomic power industry, information technology and science sectors, among other issues.

President Roh and Finnish President Tarja Halonen will hold a summit on Sept. 7 to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation in trade, investment, IT, science and technology.

Roh will go on to attend the 6th ASEM summit, which will take place in the Finnish capital Helsinki on Sept. 10-11 with heads of state from 39 Asian and EU members on hand.

"At this year's ASEM summit, President Roh and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will jointly preside over an Asian summit. The president will seek ASEM member countries' support for the peaceful settlement of North Korean nuclear and missile problems and progress in inter-Korean relations," said a Cheong Wa Dae official.

On the sidelines of the ASEM summit, Roh will separately hold talks with his counterparts from the EU, Poland, Slovakia, Germany, France and Denmark.

In the U.S., President Roh will visit Washington on Sept. 12-14 before a two-day stopover in San Francisco on Sept. 14-15. It will be the sixth summit between the South Korean and U.S. leaders since Roh was inaugurated in February 2003.

"The president will also meet with American legislative and opinion leaders in both Washington and San Francisco for discussions on a number of pending issues, including North Korean nuclear and missile programs and Northeast Asia's regional politics," the official said.

Most recently, Roh and Bush had an in-depth discussion on security and other pending issues on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in Busan last November.

According to diplomatic watchers, Roh and Bush are expected to discuss a closer alliance and fine-tune a joint position regarding North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile issues during their summit meeting.

Solutions to the stalemated six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program and comprehensive discussions over sticky FTA issues are also likely to be high on the agenda.

However, it remains to be seen how the two leaders will find common ground between Washington's anti-North Korea hawks and Seoul's supporters of continued inter-Korean exchanges, they said.

Seoul, Sept. 3 (Yonhap News)