Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong, back to camera, gives welcome address to APEC leaders, in Singapore, 14 Nov 2009Leaders of 21 Pacific Rim economies opened meetings in Singapore Saturday to discuss recovery from the global financial crisis and promotion of free trade.Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders have stressed that the global recovery is still fragile, and more coordinated efforts are needed to overcome protectionism and maintain stable growth.U.S. President Barack Obama, on his first visit to Asia as president, arrives in Singapore from Japan within hours for the APEC meetings.Mr. Obama came under fire from some APEC leaders Saturday for allegedly backtracking on free trade.  Mexican President Filipe Calderon singled out Washington for "going in the opposite sense of free trade," while Russian President Dmitri Medvedev made the same point.Mr. Calderon mentioned increasing "buy American" clauses in U.S. legislation. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spoke Saturday to propose a European Union-style model for cooperation, which he called the Asia-Pacific Community easy payday loans.U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said a high standard regional trade agreement under the Trans-Pacific partnership would be good for America.President Obama said Saturday the United States will engage members of the TPP, which consists of Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore.China's President Hu Jintao, speaking Friday at an Asia-Pacific meeting, said China is working hard to increase domestic demand, and he urged fellow Asian-Pacific leaders to work together to open up free trade.Mr. Hu said a major stimulus package and moderate adjustments to China's monetary policy are some of the other measures Beijing has taken. The meeting was also attended by around 800 of the world's business leaders.It was one of a series of gatherings leading up to Sunday's summit of APEC leaders.Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

APEC Leaders Begin Meetings in Singapore