JAKARTA (Reuters) United States President Barack Obama finally made a much-delayed homecoming of sorts to Indonesia on Tuesday, seeking to engage Muslims and cement strategic relations on the second leg of his Asia tour.

Obama arrived in Jakarta under stormy skies on Air Force One from India, as his nine-day Asian odyssey took him from the world's largest democracy to its most populous Muslim-majority nation.

The president spent four years in Indonesia as a boy with his late mother, though he will have little time for tourism on the 24-hour visit in which he will attempt to renew his outreach to the Muslim world while courting new markets and business opportunities for U.S. companies.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters that volcanic ash spewing from the mouth of Mount Merapi in central Java could force Obama to cut back the whirlwind trip even shorter.

"The modeling for the volcanic ash will likely necessitate that we leave Indonesia several hours earlier than the schedule had it laid out tomorrow," he said, adding however that a keynote speech scheduled for Wednesday would still take place.

Remembered by his old Indonesian schoolmates as a chubby boy called "Barry", Obama will hold talks and share an official dinner with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday, focusing on economic and security issues.

Obama will also use his short stay to reach out to the Muslim world. On Wednesday he will visit the Istiqlal Mosque, one of the world's largest, and make a major outdoor speech that aides said is expected to draw large crowds.

Around 15,000 police and military personnel are massing to maintain security, in a city that saw bomb attacks on hotels last year but that has made progress in tackling Islamist militancy.

The long U.S. wars in Muslim nations Afghanistan and Iraq have lost Obama support among Muslims since he made a major speech in Cairo in June 2009, and a hardline Islamist group in the mostly moderate Muslim country has protested against his visit.

Obama's visit to a country where he spent four years of his childhood comes after two previously scheduled trips were put off -- in March as he fought to pass his healthcare overhaul law and in June as he faced the cleanup of the massive BP oil spill.

The delays disappointed and angered some Indonesians, and even this visit had been in some doubt because of concerns about volcanic ash from repeated eruptions of Mount Merapi volcano, which led to flight cancellations over the weekend.

Jakarta is the second stop on Obama's 10-day four-nation Asian tour. He has spent three days in India, where his emphasis was on developing business links that could lead to U.S. jobs, and later will visit South Korea, where he attends a G20 summit and Yokohama, Japan, for an Asia-Pacific economic meeting.

"Comprehensive Partnership"Obama and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono are expected to sign a "Comprehensive Partnership" they agreed to a year ago.

The pact covers security, economic and people-to-people issues, said Jeffrey Bader, Obama's top Asian adviser. Obama could announce millions in funding to fight climate change by protecting Indonesia's forests, sources say, although large corporate deals have not been flagged.

The United States exports only about $6 billion worth of goods to Indonesia each year, making it America's 37th largest market, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Two-way trade is likely to pick up slightly to around $20 billion this year.

However, the U.S. has dwindled in importance as a source of foreign direct investment into Indonesia, with just $171.5 million or 1.6 percent of the total last year, reflecting rampant graft, poor infrastructure and concerns on nationalist policies.

"Indonesia maintains significant and far-reaching foreign investment restrictions," said the U.S. Trade Representative's 2010 National Trade Estimates Report.

"Its investment climate continues to be characterized by legal uncertainty, economic nationalism and disproportionate influence of business interests."

While Obama is hoping for U.S. investment in sectors such as clean energy to help spur a sagging economy at home, growing direct investment is now coming more from Asia than the West.

Copyright © 2010 Alarabiya Networks/Reuters. All rights reserved.

---