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In a blunt challenge to his nation's
critics, President Barack Obama on Wednesday exhorted world leaders
who once accused the United States of acting alone to now join with
him in solving global crises rather than wait for America to do it
on its own.

      
In his first address to the U.N. General Assembly, Obama sought
to set a new tone in U.S. relations, moving away from the
unilateralism of his predecessor, George W. Bush. He coupled
conciliatory words about a "new era of engagement" with a summons
for other nations to shoulder more of the burden.

      
"Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the
world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's
problems alone," Obama said.

      
"Now is the time for all of us to take our share of
responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

      
Obama said past policies and a perception of unilateralism by
the United States had fed "an almost reflexive anti-Americanism"
that too often was used as an excuse for inaction.

      
"The time has come for the world to move in a new direction,"
Obama said before a U.N. chamber packed with more than 100 of his
global counterparts.

      
The president offered a litany of policy changes and actions his
administration had undertaken during his first nine months in
office, with the overarching message that the United States has no
interest in a go-it-alone stance and instead wants to act as an
equal partner with others on the world stage.

      
"In an era where our destiny is shared, power is no longer a
zero-sum game," Obama said. "No world order that elevates one
nation or group of people over another will succeed."

      
Obama received hearty applause when he entered the room, from
even the likes of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, and his address
was interrupted several times by polite applause. Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not join in the applause.

      
Gadhafi addressed the General Assembly immediately after Obama,
but White House aides made sure the two leaders would not cross
paths. Tensions with the Libyan leader are high in the wake of
Scotland's recent release of Libyan Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was
convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, in which 270
people died.


      
In his speech, Obama summoned fellow leaders to do their part to
address a long list of global challenges: to help bring about a
nuclear weapons-free world, to increase security from terrorists
and promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians, to tackle
climate change and to create more economic opportunity. In essence,
Obama's message was that he expects plenty in return for reaching
out.

      
"If we are honest with ourselves," he told world leaders, "we
need to admit that we are not living up" to the shared
responsibility to meet such challenges.

      
"Extremists sowing terror in pockets of the world," Obama
said. "Protracted conflicts that grind on and on; genocide; mass
atrocities; more nations with nuclear weapons; melting ice caps and
ravaged populations; persistent poverty and pandemic disease."

      
"I say this not to sow fear, but to state a fact: The magnitude
of our challenges has yet to be met by the measure of our
actions," Obama said.

      
He said that Iran and North Korea must be held accountable if
they continue to put their pursuit of nuclear weapons ahead of
international security.

      
"The world must stand together to demonstrate that
international law is not an empty promise and that treaties will be
enforced," he said.

      
Obama has said the door is open to Iran to discuss the issue,
but that U.S. patience is not limitless. He has taken the same
position with respect to the reclusive communist regime in North
Korea.

      
Seeking to build on his three-way meeting in New York on Tuesday
with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Obama urged nations aligned
with either side to join the cause of advancing Mideast peace - by
speaking honestly to Israelis about Palestinian's legitimate claims
and to Palestinians and Arab nations about Israel's right to exist.

      
"All of us must decide whether we are serious about peace, or
whether we only lend it lip-service," Obama said. "To break the
old patterns, to break the cycle of insecurity and despair all of
us must say publicly what we would acknowledge in private."

      
On the warming planet, Obama said "the danger posed by climate
change cannot be denied - and our responsibility to meet it must
not be deferred."

      
The president said he understood the temptation of nations to
put economic recovery ahead of efforts to address climate change,
but said that must not be allowed to happen.

      
Ahead of the G-20 meetings of industrial and developing nations
that Obama is hosting later this week in Pittsburgh, he lobbied for
stronger financial regulations - "new rules of the road" - to
prevent future economic calamities. Momentum for such changes has
fallen off as the economy appears to be limping back to health.

      
While Obama's summons for world leaders to work together is
hardly new, it is sharper because of the political context. Obama
follows Bush, who at times questioned the U.N.'s toughness and
credibility, particularly in containing Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

      
Obama's team is intent on drawing the contrast.

      
"The United States has dramatically changed the tone, the
substance and the practice of our diplomacy at the United
Nations," said Susan Rice, Obama's ambassador to the U.N.

      
Obama started his day with his first meeting with the new
Japanese prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, who has said he wants to
shift Japan's diplomatic stance from one that is less centered on
Washington's lead.

      
Obama and Hatoyama said after their talks that the traditional
alliance between their nations will continue. Hatoyama's sometimes
anti-Washington remarks weren't mentioned directly.

      
Later, Obama was meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
That session comes just days following Obama's decision to abruptly
scrap a Bush-era missile defense plan that Russia deeply opposed,
swapping it for a proposal the U.S. says better targets any launch
by Iran.

In a blunt challenge to his nation's
critics, President Barack Obama on Wednesday exhorted world leaders
who once accused the United States of acting alone to now join with
him in solving global crises rather than wait for America to do it
on its own.


Obama tells U.N. not to count on America to solve world's problems

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