Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has began a diplomatic marathon in New York in an effort to bolster her foreign policy credentials ahead of the November 4 presidential election.

Palin -- who did not get her first passport until 2007 and had never met a foreign head of state -- held brief separate meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

Ever since Republican presidential candidate John McCain chose Palin, 44, as his running mate, the Alaska governor has been criticized for having virtually no foreign policy experience.

At first the McCain campaign said it would only allow photographers and a TV crew into the meetings, but relented and let in a pool reporter from CNN into the Karzai event after some television networks threatened to not cover Palin's first steps on the world stage.

Palin spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt later attributed the ban on print reporters at the Karzai meeting as a staff "mix-up."