INTERNATIONAL. US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama  heads to the Middle East shortly seeking to show that he's the candidate of change, on a trip rich in both risk and potential rewards.

Obama is planning his first trip abroad since wrapping up the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, and after nearly eight years of President George W Bush's unpopular policies, a message of change is just what foreign audience want to hear.

But a significant gaffe or misstep will only underscore that criticism and bolster Republican rival John McCain's argument that the first-term senator from Illinois is a risky choice for the White House.

Obama's campaign has been quiet about the pending journey for security reasons, but he will reportedly go to Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank, along with stops in Germany, France and Britain.

Obama's journey is meant to prove he can credibly navigate the world of international diplomacy and fill the role of US commander in chief, answering critics who say he is too inexperienced for the task.

Opinion polls show significant doubts remain about the world affairs experience of Obama, who has been in the US senate since 2005. Nearly half of voters in a Washington Post/ABC survey this week said his lack of experience would hamper his ability to serve as president.

McCain, 71, was judged to have greater knowledge of the world by a margin of more than 2 to 1, and held an edge on Obama, 46, on his ability to deal with an unexpected major crisis or battle terrorism.

Only 484 of those asked said Obama would be a good commander-in-chief, while 72% said the same about McCain.

If Obama could cut that gap, he could establish himself as a firm favorite, as he is also favored on the other top issue, the battered US economy.

Sensing the stakes, both campaigns have duelled furiously over foreign policy all week, with McCain savaging Obama's new plans to divert firepower from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Obama, who will become the first black presidential nominee of a major US political party, has captivated the international community and made the presidential campaign the most watched globally in recent history.

Despite his popularity overseas and the desire of many abroad to anoint him as the next president, Obama still faces a tough campaign against McCain, in whom US voters have more confidence, according to recent opinion polls.

Obama, however, leads McCain overall in national polls by margins ranging from four to eight percentage points, a far from insurmountable gap with more than three months left before the 4 November election.

Obama, who has called for the removal of US combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office, made his only trip to Iraq in January 2006 and has never been to Afghanistan. McCain was in Iraq in March and has visited there eight times.

He is expected to meet King Abdullah in Amman on Monday and will next head to Jerusalem for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Senior Palestinian diplomat Saeb Erakat has said Obama will visit Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank on 23 July.

Obama will begin his visit to Europe in Berlin, a city rebuilt with American money after World War II, with its very unity a living symbol of shared US and European endeavor in the Cold War.

His visit will draw comparisons to the fabled visit to Berlin in 1963 of president John F. Kennedy, to whom Obama is often compared by supporters who see him also as a leader at the intersection of hope and history.

The Berlin visit has already been controversial, after Obama's team apparently looked into the possibility of speaking at the Brandenburg Gate, backdrop to another famous presidential visit, Ronald Reagan's in 1987.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly balked at a US campaign rally being staged at such a potent national symbol as being inappropriate.

Obama is expected to make a short trip to Paris on 25 July, for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and will wrap up his swing by meeting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

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