WASHINGTON - Back from his Asia tour, President Barack Obama called last Saturday for the United States to produce more goods to sell across the Pacific, touting trade as a way to revive the troubled US economy.

Facing rising unemployment and slipping poll numbers, Mr Obama assured the public that creating new jobs back home was his top priority on the week-long tour that took him to Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea.

"I travelled to Asia to open a new era of American engagement," Mr Obama said in his weekly radio address, recorded while he was in Seoul.

"Above all, I spoke with leaders in every nation I visited about what we can do to sustain this economic recovery and bring back jobs and prosperity for our people - a task I will continue to focus on relentlessly in the weeks and months ahead."

Mr Obama, who was elected in the midst of the worst economic crisis in decades, said the lesson of the turmoil was that the world's largest economy should not fuel its growth by going into debt.

If the US grew exports to Asia-Pacific nations by 5 per cent, "we can increase the number of American jobs supported by these exports by hundreds of thousands", the President said.

He cited Massachusetts-based American Superconductor Corporation, noting that it has added more than 100 jobs by providing wind-power and smart-grid systems to Asia's emerging economies.

But Mr Obama acknowledged that he could not bring back all the jobs lost in the crisis. "Even though it will take time, I can promise you this: We are moving in the right direction," he said.

Pro-trade business groups have had mixed feelings about Mr Obama, whose Democratic Party enjoys strong support from labour unions.

During his trip, Mr Obama said the US would engage in the Trans-Pacific Partnership - a hitherto-obscure pact involving Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore - in hopes of building a vast regional free-trade zone.

But a free-trade agreement between the US and South Korea struck under predecessor George W. Bush remains in limbo, with Mr Obama pressing Seoul to make more concessions for the beleaguered US car industry.

The President has also taken heat from the US press for his trip, with commentators accusing him of swopping Mr Bush's cowboy swagger with a "diplomacy of deference", behaving like the leader of a "weakened giant" and portraying him as going cap-in-hand to America's biggest creditor, China.