Clinton leaves March 15 for the tour to discuss' common approaches' to challenges like 'the financial markets turmoil, humanitarian issues, security and climate change, "Robert Wood said on Thursday.Her choice of her first trip for Asia 'is a tremendous signal of the importance of Asia to (the U.S.) foreign policy agenda,' Wood said. 'It's growing in size, in influence, prosperity. "
Christopher Hill, a career diplomat who was Washington's top nuclear negotiator with North Korea, Clinton will travel to Asia with a State Department official told AFP speaking on condition of anonymity.
Hill is also a leading candidate to be the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq, but the decision has not been finalized yet, another State Department official said earlier.
Some U.S. think-tanks have advised Clinton to travel to Asia soon to show that the new U.S. government takes a balanced approach towards Asia and Europe.
She also wanted to visit Indonesia because she feels it is important to 'reach out' to it has the world's biggest Muslim population, Wood added.
Clinton will visit Japan from February 16-18, Indonesia from February 18-19, South Korea from February 19-20, February 20-22 and China, he said.
He added she will also touch on the six-party negotiations to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons. Those efforts involve the United States, the two Koreas, Japan, China and Russia.
'We all want to see how we can get the North Koreans to abide by their international obligations and to see how, through the six-party framework, we can get them to live up to those obligations, "Wood said. South Korea's foreign ministry said February 2 that Clinton planned to travel to Asia on her first trip, with stops in China, Japan and South Korea. Clinton's visit comes at a delicate time. Nuclear disarmament negotiations with North Korea are stalled.
The communist state has also been taking an increasingly threatening posture towards the South's conservative government.
The North scrapped all previous agreements aimed at reducing military tensions on January 30, and on Sunday it warned of a possible military conflict.
The United States is conducting a review of its North Korea policy.
Clinton said last week it is' essential 'to pursue the six-party disarmament talks but also suggested that bilateral discussions could be pursued.
Her itinerary will delight Japan, which is highly sensitive to any slights to its standing as the key U.S. ally in the region.
Some Japanese leaders have bitter memories of Clinton's husband, former president Bill Clinton, who pressed hard on Tokyo trade issues and flew over Japan on a key when heading 1998 visit to China. In a telephone conversation with Japan's Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, Clinton said she placed "great emphasis" on resolving the issue of Japanese civilians kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies.
Japan, despite the overall warm relations with George W Bush's administration, had opposed his decision denuclearisation under a deal to take North Korea off a blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism.