WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama will make his first foreign trip as president of the United States to Canada — restoring a long-standing tradition abandoned eight years ago by George W. Bush.

Officials in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office confirmed Obama has accepted an offer to visit Canada “soon” after his Jan. 20 inauguration as America’s 44th president.

“We have been in close contact with president-elect Obama’s transition team,” said Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for the prime minister’s office.

“We can confirm that the president-elect has accepted the prime minister’s invitation to visit Canada soon after he is inaugurated. This will be president Obama’s first foreign visit.”

New U.S. presidents, dating to Warren Harding in 1923 and Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933, have typically made Canada their first international visit following their election. But Bush deviated from that historical pattern after his inauguration in 2001, travelling to Mexico to meet with then-president Vicente Fox in a bid to improve ties and strike an immigration deal with America’s southern neighbour.

The disclosure of Obama’s trip to Canada came after word that the president-elect planned to meet this Monday in Washington with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, the first foreign leader he will meet since his election on Nov. 4.

Soudas did not announce a date for the Obama visit, or disclose its location or specifics of the agenda.

Brooke Anderson, an official in Obama’s presidential transition told Canwest News Service she could “confirm that is true.”

“President-elect Obama looks forward to his visit to Canada. It will be the first foreign visit in his presidency, underscoring the importance of the relationship between the United States and Canada,” said Anderson, Obama’s chief national security spokesman.

It’s expected the date of the visit will not be known until after the inauguration.

Canada’s junior Foreign Affairs minister Peter Kent said the move was great news for Canada.

“It’s a long tradition and it’s a tradition that Canada is very proud of,” he told Global News. “With very few exceptions Canada is the first visit made by an American president and our government is proud and delighted that President Obama will follow that tradition.”

Harper does not plan to attend Obama’s inauguration. The Canadian government will be represented by Kent and Jason Kenney, the citizenship and immigration minister.

Stephen Clarkson, a political economy professor at the University of Toronto, said Obama’s decision to make Canada the first country he visits as U.S. president shows that he wants to work closely with Harper.

“This is symbolically, a great move for Canada,” said Clarkson, who has been a professor for more than 40 years.

“Canada is losing its importance to the world and to the United States in general. This visit will show that the U.S. thinks that ‘Canada is important to us’. ”

Clarkson said the amount of time Obama spends in Canada during his visit will set the schedule for what he and the prime minister will discuss.

“There are a number of important issues to talk about. They might have some problems because of their ideological differences. Harper has been extremely close to (President) Bush on foreign policy positions and Kyoto,” he said. “It may be important for Harper to listen to what Obama might say.