US president greets Indonesians

JAKARTA: Clinton yesterday relentlessly hammered home the Obama administration's message that America is under new management and ready to listen and engage the world.

"When the United States is absent, people believe that we are not interested and that can create a vacuum that destructive forces can fill," she told a group of journalists after meeting with Indonesia's leader on the second leg of a weeklong Asia tour. "We don't want to be absent. We want to be present."

Earlier, she took to the airwaves, appearing on a popular youth show in the world's most populous Muslim nation to deliver her message and bring greetings from President Barack Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia.