Speech will aim to heal rifts

By Ross Colvin and David Alexander

RIYADH (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will try to heal a deep rift between the United States and the Muslim world in an address in Cairo on Thursday that will be crucial to his efforts to win the support of moderate Muslim countries.

Ostensibly his speech is aimed at the ummah, the more than 1-billion-strong global Muslim community, but his choice of Cairo underscores his focus on Muslims in the Middle East, where he faces some of his biggest foreign policy challenges.

Obama is seeking to build a coalition of moderate Muslim governments to support his efforts to revive stalled Middle East peace talks and help the United States curb Iran's nuclear programme, which Tehran says is to generate electricity but the West fears is a cover to build atomic weapons.

U.S. officials told reporters on Wednesday Obama would talk candidly and thoroughly about a range of issues that had "caused tensions between the United States and the Muslim world," and explain his policies towards Afghanistan and Iraq.

The address is part of a broader effort by Obama to rewrite U.S. foreign policy that under his predecessor George W. Bush alienated allies and fuelled a wave of anti-Americanism in the Muslim world, although the president said this week it would not be an apology for the Bush administration's policies.

Obama has vowed to chart a new path in U.S. relations with Muslims, offering ties based on "mutual interest and mutual respect," after the former Bush administration's campaign against terrorism, with its invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, was seen by many Muslims as an assault on their faith.

Bush launched what he called a "war on terror" after the September 11 attacks on the United States by al Qaeda, whose leader, Osama bin Laden, sought to upstage Obama's speech in comments aired on Wednesday. Bin Laden said Obama had planted the seeds of "revenge and hatred" among Muslims with his support for a crackdown on Taliban strongholds in Pakistan.

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