Leon Panetta and Robert Gates, two former directors of the CIA and Defense Department, on Saturday criticized President Barack Obama's "micromanagement" of the military.

"For the past 25 to 30 years, there has been a centralization of power in the White House," Panetta said during a panel discussion at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday warned of the dangers of outright conflict in Asia, as China squares off against rival claimants over disputed territories, but vowed that Washington would remain anchored in the region.

In a speech at Brisbane's University of Queensland, Obama insisted that his "pivot" of U.S. policy back to Asia was real and here to stay.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Myanmar Friday to hold "free, fair and inclusive" elections as he threw his weight behind a bid by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to change a constitution that bars her from the presidency.

Obama held talks with fellow Nobel laureate Suu Kyi at her lakeside villa in Myanmar's commercial capital Yangon, after arriving from the capital Naypyidaw where he discussed the nation's troubled reform process with President Thein Sein.

The United States voiced alarm over Myanmar's "backsliding" on democratic reforms, as President Barack Obama Thursday attended a regional summit meant to showcase the country's transition from army-led isolation.

Obama was set to raise powder-keg rights issues in a meeting with his Myanmar counterpart Thein Sein -- a former general turned reformer -- late Thursday on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Myanmar's capital, Naypyidaw.

U.S. President Barack Obama landed in Myanmar Wednesday as the once cloistered nation hosted its biggest gathering of world leaders since shedding junta rule, but concerns over the pace of democratic reforms surfaced immediately.

Obama, who will meet Southeast Asian leaders and attend the East Asia Summit in the purpose-built capital of Naypyidaw, signaled he would throw his political might into re-igniting the democratic process.

From Cheshire Cat-like grins to gloom invoking Eeyore the donkey, the diplomatic menagerie surrounding an annual Asia-Pacific summit meeting left observers with a "through the looking glass" sense of the absurd.

A week of summitry in Beijing offered insights into the diplomatic relationships -- strained as well as warm -- and the shifting dynamics of power between globetrotting leaders.

The United States insisted Wednesday it did not condone torture under any circumstances, but acknowledged to a U.N. anti-torture watchdog it had "crossed the line" following the September 11 attacks.

"The U.S. is proud of its record as a leader in respecting, promoting and defending human rights and the rule of law, both at home and around the world," acting U.S. legal adviser Mary McLeod told the 10-member U.N. Committee against Torture.

U.S. President Barack Obama named a shady group linked to attacks in China's mainly Muslim far west as he called for cooperation with Beijing on anti-terror efforts in an interview with Chinese state media.

Beijing regularly blames an organisation it calls the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) for a series of deadly attacks in its Xinjiang region, home to the Uighur minority.

The United States and China have "reached an understanding" on an agreement to reduce tariffs on information technology trade, the White House said in a statement Tuesday.

Washington hoped the move would "contribute to a rapid conclusion" of negotiations in Geneva on the World Trade Organization's first major tariff-cutting deal in 17 years, President Barack Obama told leaders gathered for an Asia-Pacific summit in Beijing, the statement said.

U.S. President Barack Obama voiced support Monday for "free and open Internet" rules to protect against putting online services that don't pay extra fees into a "slow lane."

Obama endorsed an effort to reclassify the Internet as a public utility to give regulators more authority to enforce "net neutrality," the principle barring Internet service firms from playing favorites or opening up "fast lanes" for services that pay fees for better access.