Obama will visit 'haunting grounds'

SINGAPORE - US PRESIDENT Barack Obama said Friday he would visit some of his old 'haunting grounds' in Indonesia during a visit next year to the nation where he spent part of his childhood and is hugely popular.

The verbal slip drew laughs as Mr Obama spoke during an appearance with Indonesian President President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after the two leaders met on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore.

'So I am very excited about our prospects for deepening relations in the future, and I want to make sure that everybody knows that I intend to be visiting Indonesia next year,' Mr Obama said.

Mr Obama added he planned to take along First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha.

'The invitation that's been extended by President Yudhoyono is one that I want to take up, and I'm hoping to be able to take Michelle and the girls as well so that they can take a look at some of my old haunting grounds,' he said, to laughter from journalists and officials.

Mr Obama, who was born in Hawaii, lived for several years as a child in Indonesia's capital Jakarta in the late 1960s after his divorced mother married an Indonesian. The childhood connection and his knowledge of a few words of the Indonesian language have made him massively popular in the country of 234 million people, 90 per cent of whom are Muslim. -- AFP