President Barack Obama this week will try to capitalize on his popularity in the Middle East to improve relations between the U.S. and the Muslim world.

A much-anticipated address in Cairo on Thursday will be the most significant effort to-date in a string of outreach measures that began with Mr. Obama's inauguration -- although no major policy changes on the thorniest issues, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, are expected to be announced.


Rather, Mr. Obama will attempt to "change the conversation" with the world's one-billion-plus Muslims, said Denis McDonough, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications at the White House. "We want to get back on a shared partnership, back in a conversation that focuses on the shared values," he said.

Mr. Obama's visit is scheduled to begin on Wednesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and will end with stops in traditional U.S. allies Germany and France. The highlight is his Cairo speech, which White House officials have described as a major outreach effort to the Muslim world.

In 2007, Mr. Obama had promised to deliver such an address if elected president.


The president is likely to highlight his personal story: He has Muslim family members, spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, the world's most-populous Muslim nation, and has a Muslim name -- Barack Hussein Obama. He has already taken some steps welcomed in the Muslim world, promising to end the war in Iraq and to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Polling in the Arab world shows that Mr. Obama at this time is better liked than former President George W. Bush and that many are hopeful about his administration.

But the U.S. is still seen in a mostly unfavorable light in the region, and those attitudes have only marginally improved since Mr. Obama took office.

In his inaugural address, in a video message to the people of Iran and in an April speech to the Turkish parliament, Mr. Obama offered words of outreach.

Much of the negative feeling stems from anger over the lack of progress toward Palestinian statehood, for which many blame the U.S. In his first interview after his inauguration, given to the Arab-language broadcaster Al-Arabiya, Mr. Obama promised to re-engage on the peace process and bring a new attitude on Mideast and Islamic affairs.

Since then, he has invited regional leaders to the White House to discuss the matter, but there has been little progress so far. The White House has said no major policy initiatives should be expected this week.

Many in the region would like Mr. Obama to outline new, specific policy proposals. "We don't need pretty words. We need actions to satisfy ... [those Arabs] looking for transparency, human rights and justice," said Ali Al Ahmed, a Saudi human rights activist and director of the Institute of Gulf Affairs in Washington.

Those looking for a dramatic change in policy are likely to be disappointed, said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. He said Mr. Obama could try and lower anti-American sentiment by highlighting areas of agreement and making clear he is willing to listen to alternate views.

"That's the first task for the president -- to frame U.S. policy in a way that takes some of the passion out of widespread hostility to the United States. For a lot of audiences out there, moving them from violent hostility to grudging disapproval would be a tremendous victory," he said.

It's unclear whether Mr. Obama will meet with democracy activists in Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak has quashed domestic opposition to his 28-year rule. Over the weekend, Obama aides said the White House has invited "the range of political actors in Egypt" to Mr. Obama's speech, but they declined to say if the president would meet with civil society activists.

Meeting with activists could annoy his hosts in the Egyptian government, but Mr. Obama could come under criticism if he doesn't meet with them. Mr. Bush rankled feelings across the Middle East during his tenure not just with his policy decisions, but also because he was seen as rejecting democratically elected leaders the U.S. didn't like, such as Hamas, while embracing authoritarian leaders who supported U.S. policy.

Arab analysts said many in the Mideast will be paying especially close attention to any comments by Mr. Obama on the Lebanese parliamentary elections, scheduled for next weekend. The political wing of Hezbollah, supported by Iran and labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. and its allies, is expected to win a significant victory.

Both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden visited Beirut in recent weeks in trips intended to bolster pro-U.S. political factions in Lebanon ahead of the vote.

Great Britain, in a tacit acknowledgement of Hezbollah's rising power in Lebanon, recently lifted its prohibition on politicians meeting with the group's ministers and parliamentarians. If Mr. Obama were to signal a similar U.S. policy shift, he could gain credibility among average Arabs, if not the largely Sunni-led Arab governments which support Hezbollah's political opponents.

"If we are to take Obama seriously there has to be an end to these political contradictions," said Cairo-based political analyst Hani Shukralla.

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