Hillary Clinton: diplomat, politician or advice columnist?

By Arshad Mohammed

BEIJING (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton strolled past open-air sewers in Jakarta, talked robots over tea in Tokyo with the empress of Japan and met women students in Seoul, one of whom asked how she knew her husband "would be your love."

"You know, I feel more like an advice columnist than a secretary of state today," a bemused Clinton replied.

Making her first trip as the United States' top diplomat, Clinton made one thing abundantly clear during a week-long tour of Asian capitals: she is no ordinary secretary of state.

Where most of her pinstriped-predecessors have focussed on policy, rather than people, the former presidential candidate took to diplomacy as if it was a political campaign.

Spliced in among her meetings with presidents and prime ministers, Clinton made time for an appearance on a music TV show in Indonesia, held "town hall" meetings with students in Japan and South Korea, and scheduled a web chat in China.

Beyond advancing U.S. interests in Asia, Clinton told reporters she viewed part of her job as trying to restore an American image tarnished by the Iraq war and other unpopular policies pursued by former President George W. Bush.

"We've got a lot of work to do," she said early in her trip to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China. "I have no illusions about how high ... a hill we have to climb here to inspire confidence and respect in people's minds again."

The former first lady tried to show that the United States can be a force for good in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, by taking a walk through a modest Jakarta neighbourhood where Washington funds development projects.