U.S. President Barack Obama will seek on Monday to shore up ties with Turkey, a Muslim country with growing clout whose help Washington needs to solve confrontations from Iran to Afghanistan.

Obama’s two-day visit is a nod to Turkey’s regional reach, economic power, diplomatic contacts and status as a secular democracy seeking European Union membership that has accommodated political Islam.

It is the last leg of an eight-day trip marking his debut as president on the world stage.

“The president will discuss the need for the U.S.-Turkish partnership to address regional challenges like the threat from terrorism, the war in Afghanistan, relations with Iran, and the shared goal of lasting peace between Israel and its neighbours,” the White House said.

The U.S.-Turkish relationship suffered in 2003 when Ankara opposed the invasion of Iraq and refused to let U.S. troops deploy on its territory. Turkey has also criticised Washington for allowing Kurdish separatists to be based in northern Iraq from where they stage attacks into Turkish territory.

Turkey is a major transit route for U.S. troops and equipment destined for Iraq as well as Afghanistan. As the United States reduces its troops there, Incirlik air force base could play a key role and Obama will discuss this.

“Given Turkish activity and credibility in the wider region stretching from Afghanistan to the Middle East, passing over energy transit routes, Obama wants to give new blood to a real strategic partnership with Turkey,” said Cengiz Candar, a leading Turkish commentator and Middle East expert.

Polls show antipathy among most Turks for Washington. But Obama’s popularity around the world is already being felt in Turkey. Turkish newspapers heaped praise on Obama, with top selling newspaper Hurriyet saying on its front page: “Welcome Mr. President.”

There were scattered waves from onlookers along the motorcade route to the tomb of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the revered founder of modern Turkey who built the republic on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire and turned it towards the West.

“I look forward to strengthening relations between the U.S. and Turkey and support Ataturk’s vision of Turkey as a modern and prosperous democracy,” Obama wrote in the guestbook at Ataturk’s tomb.

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Obama has had an eye to ties with Turkey during his tour.

In Prague on Sunday, Obama urged the European Union to accept Turkey as a full member, in remarks rejected outright by France and met coolly by Germany.

And Turkey said it dropped objections to Anders Fogh Rasmussen becoming the next head of NATO after Obama guaranteed one of the Dane’s deputies would be a Turk.

Obama may unlock the kind of goodwill generated by former U.S. President Bill Clinton when he came to Turkey in 1999, but risks dissipating it all if he uses the word “genocide” to describe the fate of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

In his election campaign, Obama pledged to call the massacres of Armenians genocide, and a resolution to so designate them was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last month.

Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks during World War One but denies that up to 1.5 million died as a result of systematic genocide.

“We’re not out to ask favours from Obama. His presence is enough for us,” a senior Turkish government official said.

Turkey will not be the venue for Obama’s promised major speech in a Muslim capital, but his stop will still be a way to emphasise his message of goodwill to Muslims.

Obama will give an address at the parliament in Ankara, and during a visit to Istanbul he will meet with students at an Islamic museum and tour the historic sites.