BACOLOD CITY, Philippines—US Ambassador Kristie Kenney said Friday she expects "extraordinarily good relations" between the Philippines and the United States under the Barrack Obama presidency.

Describing President-elect Obama as a "fan of the Philippines," Kenny said the Philippines would continue to be a "strong friend of America" and a "strong ally" of the United States in the Asian region.

Kenny said Obama's links to Southeast Asia, having spent his early years in Indonesia, already indicated he has a "very global outlook."

"We will let the new president shape things himself but I think we'll expect extraordinarily good relations,” she said. “So I think we are going to expect not only good relations but I think we will expect them to be even stronger."

But Kenney said she thinks it would not be likely that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would be able to meet with Obama when she attends the United Nations interfaith dialogue next week in the US.

"I think (a meeting between Obama and Arroyo) is unlikely because the President-elect, as I understand it, is not yet meeting with foreign leaders," she said. "He is the president-elect, he is busy assembling his cabinet."

Kenny did not also believe that Obama had any plan as yet to meet foreign leaders, particularly since George W. Bush is still the president.

"I think they (Bush and Obama) are both being very respectful of that transition," she said.

Obama's being unable to meet President Arroyo when she was in the United States the last time and to take her call after he won in the election were not because he was snubbing her as alleged by some sectors, she said.

President Arroyo actually put in a call knowing that it was not going to be possible to get him to take it, she said.

"I am speaking on behalf of the Palace which I should never do but we happened to have helped with phone numbers and in fact it was 2 or 3 in the morning US time. What the Obama team told us is that hers was one of the first and most gracious calls. They are taking down names and numbers and they will call back when they get a chance," she said.

"He's been a fan of the Philippines. As you know he talked to her the last time she was there because his campaign schedule had him nowhere near (her). She was in New York and Washington and those aren't campaign sites for anybody and he was out campaigning," she said.

Then presidential candidate Obama did not only talk to Arroyo by phone but also wrote to her afterwards.

"So I expect they'll have a good relationship. Our presidents have always had," she said.

"The fact that he was in Indonesia as a child, you know you could grow up with the fondness for the region. So I think he is very global in outlook anyway but I think we will have a real sort of warmth towards Southeast Asia. You know he talks about the happiness he had there (in Indonesia) and how he just loved that experience," she said.

When asked about the US anti-terror policy under an Obama presidency, Kenney said she did not expect any change with respect to any of the development and security work they were doing in the Philippines because "they are important partnerships that we have had for such a long time."

She pointed out that Obama and defeated Republican presidential candidate John McCain, as sitting US senators, are "very well aware of the work we do out here and so I don't expect any major changes."

On the state of the US and world economy, Kenney said she believed Obama said it best in his acceptance speech.

"He said we are faced with a lot of challenges, this is going to be difficult. He is not promising an answer in one week, one year maybe not even one term but we will get there," she said.

Kenny said Obama has also said that he would be addressing the US economic woes with an eye on its effect on the economies in other parts of the world. "(He said) it is going to be a team approach. It is a global economy we all rise or fall together."

Kenny said that like most Americans, she feels a lot of optimism with Obama's election as president.

"President-elect Obama has shown himself to be very inclusive, very thoughtful. He doesn't seem to promise things he can't deliver so I think when he says this won't be easy that we will make it," she said.

As to the bill for more benefits for Filipino veterans, she said it was pending in the last Congress and would have to be tackled by the new Congress.

She said she could not say how it would go at this time.

Kenney was in Bacolod for the induction of new American Peace Corps volunteers in the Philippines, visited First Farmers Milling Co., the call center firm Convergies, and the Coca Cola bottling plant.

She also paid a courtesy call on Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia at the new government center in Bacolod City.