WASHINGTON – Prime Minister Stephen Harper won reassuring words on the trade front during his first visit to Barack Obama's White House.

Acknowledging Canadian worries over Buy American-style protectionism, the U.S. President today declared the overall health of cross-border commerce "robust" and vowed to ensure it remains so.

"Canada continues to be a huge trading partner to the United States. There is no prospect of any budding trade wars between our two countries," Obama told reporters on the heels of a 70-minute tête-à-tête with Harper in the Oval Office.

Obama hinted at possible solutions to the "irritants" of Buy American trade rules, saying the two countries have made progress in talks. "There appears to be ways to deal with this bilaterally but also, potentially, multilaterally," Obama said, striking a positive pro-trade note that will likely be echoed next week when the two leaders meet again at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh.

Harper responded in kind, noting that the two sides are on the verge of an "agreement in principal" to enable Canadian air charters to fly National Hockey League teams. The issue, though a negligible element of cross-border trade, would likely be worked out in the coming days, Harper said.

"We shouldn't lose the forest for the trees," said Harper. "These are important (trade) irritants, they are having some real impacts, but they are relatively small compared to the overall scale of Canadian-American trade."

But Harper went on to emphasize that "it is critical" that as the world struggles toward economic recovery, Canada and the U.S. serve as an example of how the "very significant threat" of trade protectionism can be overcome.

Taking one question each from the U.S. and Canadian press corps, the leaders also offered careful words on Afghanistan, with Obama stressing that the United States is still in the process of weighing how to proceed with the NATO mission. As he has done before, Obama expressed deep gratitude for the Canadian military's sacrifices in wartorn Kandahar Province.

But any discussion of a possible increase in U.S. troop levels — and where Canada and other NATO allies fit into the evolving American plan — is premature, he said.

"We are tremendously grateful for the extraordinary sacrifices of the Canadian military. They have fought, they have had staying power, they have absorbed losses that we all grieve for," said Obama.

Asked whether he was worried whether Americans might eventually be left to stand alone after Canada and possibly other NATO partners draw down their combat commitments, Obama said: "I'm not worried what will happen post 2011. I want to make sure that given the commitments that have already been made and that are continuing, we make sure that the Canadian presence there fits into a coherent whole and that it is accomplishing our goals."

Today's meeting marking the first face-to-face bilateral summit since Feb. 19, when Obama swept through Ottawa on his first visit outside the U.S. as a newly minted President.

But in stark contrast to the hero's welcome Obama received in Canada, Harper arrived amid a frenzy of environmental protests targeting Canada's carbon-intensive oil sands, a flashpoint issue the Canadian government has laboured furiously to defend as Washington ponders how to factor the vast Alberta resource into coming climate-change legislation.

Even as Harper's motorcade pulled away from the White House a few minutes after noon today, activists were outside, distributing tar sands information DVDs to tourists — one dressed as a "Carbon Bigfoot Stephen Harper," sipping from what protesters called a "larger-than-life milkshake of dirty oil sands."

"It is obvious and embarrassing that Canada is lobbying Washington to undermine climate and energy legislation by cutting s special deal for tar sands," Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence Canada, told the Toronto Star.

Though brief, the Canadian mission to Washington is proving more fulsome than first thought. After a one-one-one with Obama, the pair moved on to the Oval Office for an expanded meeting that included three senior Canadian cabinet colleagues -- Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, Environment Minister Jim Prentice and Public Safely Minister Peter Van Loan.

After leaving the White House, Harper proceeded to a private round-table meeting with leaders of the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said Harper has allowed Canada-U.S. relations to deteriorate and today's brief meeting with the president did nothing to improve the situation.

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"You can't conceal the fact that there are really no results here," Ignatieff told reporters in Ottawa after watching the Harper-Obama press conference on television.

He said Harper's claim that the two countries have reached a "breakthrough" on the dispute over charter flights for National Hockey League teams flying back and forth over the border underscores the weakness of current Canada-U.S. ties.

Ignatieff said cross-border hockey is great but "when we have to have the president and the prime minister meet to resolve this issue, it shows how much this relationship has deteriorated over the last four years."

He also slammed Harper for echoing Obama's position on the Buy America trade irritant. The president has acknowledged that protectionist measures in the U.S. are hurting Canadian and American businesses and workers but stressed that, overall, Canada-U.S. trade is still flowing well.

"He (Harper) called the Buy America issue a minor irritant," Ignatieff said. The Liberal leader noted that the Buy America provisions are barring Canadian exporters from valuable salesopportunities arising from Obama's $860-billion (U.S.) urban reconstruction project meant to stimulate the U.S. economy.

Ignatieff said there was no sign "of any real progress whatsover" on the U.S. protectionist issue after the Prime Minister's visit to the White House.

Canada's voice is not being heard in Washington because Harper misunderstood the importance of foreign affairs and has not mounted an adequate diplomatic effort to protest Buy America, Igantieff commented.

The Harper government, he said, has been "amateur hour" when it comes to Canada-U.S. relations.

Tomorrow, Harper and his team are scheduled to fan out for meetings with senior U.S. lawmakers, including Senate leaders Harry Reid (D) and Mitch McConnell (R ) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

- With files from Les Whittington

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