Experts said the meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Lima, Peru, was unlikely to produce any major breakthroughs for a lame-duck U.S. president with record low approval ratings.

“This is a serious meeting,” said Daniel Price, Bush’s adviser on international economic affairs, noting that the president’s long advocacy of free trade and open markets meshed well with APEC’s core mission. “I don’t think this is a farewell ... but rather an opportunity for the president to continue to carry forward an affirmative agenda.”

Still, trade experts said the administration’s goals for APEC would be tempered by the fact that Bush will hand over power to President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 20.

“The president, I think, is going to be loath to sort of push his own agenda or this administration’s agenda with the moving trucks pulling up to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” said Charles Freeman, a former assistant U.S. trade representative for China affairs.

The APEC gathering of 21 countries, which account for nearly half the world’s trade, “is an important meeting this time, particularly given the financial situation in the world,” Bush said in an interview with America TV of Peru.

He denied that Latin America became a lower priority for his administration after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Free trade agreements with countries in the region and programs focusing on health and education showed the U.S. commitment to Latin America, he said. “The record speaks about our deep desire to be good neighbors, and to have friends.”

Bush will also use the gathering of world leaders to hold bilateral talks on encouraging North Korea to abandon its nuclear program, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Bush will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday and the Japanese and South Korean leaders on Saturday for discussions on how to advance the North Korea talks.

The meetings are an “opportunity for all the leaders to talk about this, try and move the issue forward ... and formalize the verification protocol so that we can move forward with the North Koreans on that issue,” Johndroe said.

North Korea has agreed to disable its Yongbyon nuclear plant, which makes weapons-grade plutonium, and to submit to inspections to verify its claims about its arms program. But Pyongyang recently slowed the dismantling work, saying it was not receiving the promised compensation in a timely manner.

Bush also planned to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the APEC sidelines. The two will discuss the conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia and Moscow’s staunch opposition to U.S. plans to base a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, Johndroe said.

One of Bush’s primary objectives at APEC is to expand global commitment to financial reforms and economic principles agreed on at last week’s Washington summit of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing countries, Price said.

The principles call for countries to maintain open markets and resist an impulse to throw up trade barriers, a move that could exacerbate the economic crisis.

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