Obama Voices Solidarity on MH370 in Malaysia Visit

Barack Obama on Saturday became the first sitting U.S. president in nearly a half-century to visit Malaysia, where an official said he immediately expressed solidarity over the frustrating effort to find missing flight MH370.

Obama is on a four-nation tour through Asia intended to underscore his "rebalance" of U.S. attention towards the strategic Asia-Pacific and to push stalled negotiations on a regional trade pact that would cement his legacy in the region.

He arrived with Malaysia under a world microscope over the airliner, which vanished without a trace on March 8 with 239 people aboard, stoking international criticism of a Malaysian government response seen as bumbling and secretive.

"(Obama) said he knows it is a tough, long, road ahead. We'll work together. There is always support," Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the U.S. president told him at an arrival ceremony under humid grey skies punctuated by a crashing formal gun salute.

"I'm very happy to hear (this) because it is a long journey."

The plane is believed to have crashed in the remote Indian Ocean but is yet to be found.

Obama has used a tour which ends in the Philippines on Tuesday to stress U.S. commitment to Asian allies amid regional concern over China's territorial ambitions, but has repeatedly been distracted by crises elsewhere, including the deepening showdown with Russia over Ukraine.

Late Friday, Obama convened a conference call with EU leaders which resulted in a G7 statement that new sanctions against Moscow could be unveiled as soon as Monday.

Obama has also been forced to address the potential threat of a new nuclear weapons test by North Korea and his administration's crumbling effort to forge Middle East peace.

He had tough words for Pyongyang on Saturday, telling cheering U.S. troops in Seoul that the North was a "pariah state" whose iron rule and belligerent threats were signs of weakness.

He said the 38th parallel dividing North and South is a border "between a democracy that is growing and a pariah state that would rather starve its people than feed their hopes and dreams".

U.S. ties with economically successful, moderate-Muslim Malaysia have vastly improved after years of anti-U.S. antagonism under former leader Mahathir Mohamad.

Washington sees Malaysia as a pivotal player in Southeast Asia, and talks with Prime Minister Najib Razak will concentrate on increasing convergence in trade, security cooperation and intelligence-sharing.

Malaysia is among several nations with competing territorial claims in the South China Sea, where Beijing's assertiveness has sparked alarm.

In Japan, Obama made clear that U.S. mutual defense agreements with Tokyo covered disputed islands in the East China Sea also claimed by Beijing.

But in a sign of festering tensions, Japanese authorities said two Chinese coastguard ships sailed into Japan's territorial waters around the islands again on Saturday -- just two days after Obama left Tokyo.

The White House last year rebuked China for setting up what it said was an "illegitimate" air defense identification zone in the East China Sea. On Saturday, Air Force One flew through the zone en route to Malaysia.

In a Malaysian newspaper interview published Saturday, Obama touted growing security cooperation with Malaysia as a way to ensure "freedom of navigation in critical waterways" and that nations "play by the same rules" -- a clear reference to China.

Obama has a professed affinity with Southeast Asia, having spent four years of his childhood in Indonesia, though this is his first visit to Malaysia.

He will tread a line between courting Najib and acknowledging rising discontent with the corruption-plagued coalition in power for 57 years, which is accused of persecuting opponents.

"We support an open political process in Malaysia. We have been concerned when we see any restrictions on the political space," said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser.

The White House has decided against a meeting between Obama and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who faces five years in jail on a March 7 sodomy conviction he calls politically motivated and which the U.S. government has criticized.

Anwar will instead meet U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice.

Rhodes said Obama will discuss the broader issue of political freedoms in a town hall speech to Southeast Asian youth leaders Sunday, while he stressed the president does not always meet opposition leaders when overseas.

Obama will meet on Sunday representatives of civil-society groups critical of Najib's government.

The president is also expected to try to ease Malaysian concerns on his stalled plans for a 12 nation Trans-Pacific trade agreement, which has been delayed by tough negotiations among potential partners.

After landing, Obama was whisked to Parliament Square in central Kuala Lumpur, where he was greeted by Najib and Malaysia's king, Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah, joining them later for a state dinner.