Obama to Muslims - America is not your enemy

US President Barack Obama has told the Muslim world that "Americans are not your enemy" and renewed his pledge to travel to make an address in the capital of a major Muslim nation.

Mr Obama noted that he had lived in Indonesia for several years while growing up, and said his travels through Muslim nations had convinced him that regardless of faith, people had certain common hopes and dreams.

"My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy - we sometimes make mistakes - we have not been perfect," Mr Obama said in an interview with the Al-Arabiya satellite television network .

"But if you look at the track record ... America was not born as a colonial power, and that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that."

"We're going to follow through on our commitment for me to address the Muslim world from a Muslim capital," he said in the interview with the Dubai-based channel.

"We are going to follow through on many of my commitments to do a more effective job of reaching out, listening as well as speaking to the Muslim world," he said.

Mr Obama did not give a time, or a venue for his visit to a major Muslim capital.

His comments come as he promised that the US will lead the world on climate change and make cleaner energy a priority.

"We will make it clear to the world that America is ready to lead. To protect our climate and our collective security, we must call together a truly global coalition," said Mr Obama, before signing three executive orders and memorandums on environmental issues.

In a dig at Mr Bush, who was accused of subverting science for ideological reasons, he added: "My administration will not deny facts - we will be guided by them."

Source: Telegraph