WASHINGTON – President Bush is cutting short his stay at this year’s Asia-Pacific summit, but the fact that he’s going – at a pivotal moment in the debate over his Iraq policy – is meant to show he’s not neglecting the neighborhood.

Iraq, however, will weigh heavily on his mind during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum being held in Sydney, Australia.

It will shadow his talks about global warming, trade and thorny foreign policy challenges like North Korea with the leaders of China, Australia, South Korea, Japan and possibly others.

Mr. Bush will spending tomorrow night through Saturday in Sydney. But he is leaving a day before the summit ends to rush back to the White House where advisers are scripting a report assessing his decision earlier this year to send 30,000 more troops to Iraq.

A day after Bush returns to Washington, the top American commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, testifies to Congress. Then, Tuesday marks the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. American ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, testifies on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. And by Sept. 15,

Bush must present his Iraq progress report to Congress.

All the while, Mr. Bush’s advisers will continue to search for a replacement for embattled Attorney General Gonzales and fend off congressional investigations that are expected to follow Mr. Bush through his final 16 months in office.

This year’s Asia-Pacific summit is being hosted by Australian Prime Minister Howard, a key American ally on Iraq, who has said keeping Australian troops there could cost him re-election later this year. Mr. Bush hopes his visit gives Mr. Howard a boost.

“He is a man of steel because he is a person who stands on conviction and principle,” Mr. Bush told Australia’s Sky News television.

The president also plans a sitdown with opposition leader Kevin Rudd, who is ahead of Mr. Howard in the polls and backs a timetable for withdrawing Australian combat troops from Iraq.

“I look forward to sharing my views, and would ask, if he were to win, that he consider conditions on the ground before making any decisions – that what matters is success” in Iraq, Mr. Bush said in a pre-trip round-table with journalists.

This is Mr. Bush’s seventh APEC summit. Set up in 1989 to enhance economic growth, APEC has 21 member economies that account for more than one-third of the world’s population, more than one-half of the world’s gross domestic product and more than 40 percent of world trade.

“While much of America’s future hinges on Iraq and the broader war on terror, chances are that historians 50 years from now will point to the rise of China and Asia as the most important development in international relations in the first half of this century,” said Michael Green with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“If APEC looks a little boring on the surface, well it is,” Mr. Green said. “But on issues of trade, North Korea, Iran and global warming, the stakes could actually be quite high.”

At the summit, Mr. Bush said, he will stress open markets and free trade, denounce radicalism and work to convince summit leaders that he takes climate change seriously.

He said Iraq has not distracted him from working with Asia-Pacific countries. “Relations with the United States and the Asian Pacific region have never been better,” Mr. Bush said.

He cited joint progress among them to nudge North Korea to give up its nuclear program.

“That wouldn’t have happened without engagement, and good, solid relations,” he said.

The summit is not expected to yield binding results.

On global warming, for instance, the APEC leaders are not expected to announce targets for cutting back on carbon emissions. But they are to issue a call for major polluters to make “measurable and verifiable contributions to meeting shared global goals,” according to a draft declaration on climate change obtained by the environmental group Greenpeace and viewed by The Associated Press.

America., which along with China leads the world in emitting carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists say are warming the planet, has called for a Sept. 27-28 conference in Washington of the 15 biggest polluters. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has arranged for a broader conference in New York on Sept. 24.

Mr. Bush also will press the Asia-Pacific leaders to advance the Doha round of World Trade Organization talks named after the Qatari capital where they started in 2001. The latest attempt to kick start global trade talks failed in June in Germany when America, the European Union, Brazil and India could not break a six-year logjam between rich and poor countries over eliminating barriers to trade in farm produce and manufactured goods.

America also plans to use the summit to push for the long-term goal of an APEC-wide free-trade area, stretching from America, to Russia and from Chile to Australia. While some APEC members have balked at the idea, others argue that it would standardize the many bilateral free-trade deals in the region and serve as a fallback if the global trade talks fail to reach an agreement.