To open a Muslim dialogue, Obama visits Saudi king

US President Barack Obama began his latest bid to open a dialogue with the Muslim world by paying a call on Wednesday on Saudi King Abdullah, guardian of Islam's sacred sites in Mecca and Medina.

The monarch of Saudi Arabia greeted Obama at Riyadh's main airport with a ceremony when the new US president arrived after an overnight flight from Washington. A band played "The Star-Spangled Banner." And each leader shook hands with members of his counterpart's entourage.

Perched on ornate chairs behind a flower arrangement, Obama and Abdullah then chatted briefly in public and shook hands, with cameras capturing the scene. Then, they retreated to hold private talks on a range of issues.

Saudi Arabia is a stopover en route to Cairo, where Obama is to set deliver a speech that he's been promising since last year's election campaign -- aiming to set a new tone in America's often-strained dealings with the world's 1.5 billion Muslims.

Many of those Muslims still smolder over Iraq, Guantanamo and unflinching US support of Israel, but they are hoping the son of a Kenyan Muslim who lived part of his childhood in Indonesia, can help chart a new course.

"You know, there are misapprehensions about the West, on the part of the Muslim world," Obama said in a pre-trip interview with the BBC. "And, obviously, there are some big misapprehensions about the Muslim world when it comes to those of us in the West."