WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama, who leaves on Thursday for a trip to Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea, has put the economy, jobs and America's yawning trade deficit with Beijing at the top of his agenda.

In an interview with Reuters, Obama warned of "enormous strains" on relations between the world's two most powerful nations if imbalances were not corrected.

Obama said he would talk to the Chinese about revaluing their currency, the yuan, as well as about encouraging Chinese consumers to spend more and about opening Chinese markets further to U.S. manufacturing goods. It is a jobs agenda, he said.

Here are some quotes from the interview on those and other issues:

CHINA CURRENCY

"Tim Geithner, my Treasury Secretary, has been talking extensively to his counterpart, not only about currency issues but the whole array of factors that have contributed to these imbalances. That broader conversation will be at the center of our conversations with the Chinese delegation."

"Currency, along with a host of other issues, will come up, and I'm confident that both the United States and China can arrive at a broad set of policies that encourages trade that benefits both countries, that allows ongoing economic growth."

"It is particularly important for us when it comes to Asia as a whole to recognize that in the absence of a more robust export strategy it is going to be hard for us to rebuild our manufacturing base and employment base in this country."

"They (China) have a huge amount of U.S. dollars that they are holding, so our success is important to them. The flipside of that is that if we don't solve some of these problems, then I think both economically and politically it will put enormous strains on the relationship."