By William Choong, Senior Writer

The Obama administration will make a clean break from the previous one and demonstrate a 'very strong commitment' to Asean and the greater Asian region, Washington's No.2 diplomat James Steinberg said yesterday.

In coming months, Asia will see more high-level visits by senior American officials, Mr Steinberg, the Deputy Secretary of State, told The Sunday Times in an interview.

In July, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend a Asean Regional Forum meeting in Thailand. In February, she had visited Indonesia, China, South Korea and Japan. And later this year, President Barack Obama is expected to attend an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting to be held here.

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