Obama to meet leaders of Japan, Russia

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama will have talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev and Japan's new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama at the United Nations next week, U.S. officials said here on Friday.

"On Wednesday the 23rd, the president will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama for the first time," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Hatoyama was elected as Japan's 93rd prime minister at a special Diet session Wednesday after his Democratic Party of Japan(DPJ) won the historic lower house election by landslide on Aug. 30.

The Obama administration pledged to keep a "strong alliance" with Japan's new government headed by Prime Minister Hatoyama.

Also on Wednesday, Obama will meet with Russian President Medvedev on the sidelines of the U.N. general assembly, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice said at a press conference.

The scheduled U.S.-Russia summit meeting comes at a time when Obama announced on Thursday to abandon Bush-era plans for the deployment of missile defense system in Eastern European, which had put U.S-Russia relations in tense.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is also to attend the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, U.S., next week, hailed the announcement, saying it could boost anti-missile cooperation between Moscow and Washington.