Taking what he called "a historic opportunity" in the Middle East and North Africa gripped by unrest in the past six months, U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday outlined his vision of U.S. engagement in the broad region.

In a major foreign policy speech, he promised to use all U.S. influence to encourage reform in the region, pledged support for Tunisia and Egypt in "transition to democracy," and stated his new approach to peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians.

Turn the page

Obama described as "extraordinary" the changes taking place in the Middle East and North Africa over the past six months.

"Though these countries may be a great distance from our shores, we know that our own future is bound to this region by the forces of economics and security, by history and by faith," he said at the State Department.

He noted that the United States has pursued, for decades, a set of core interests in the region -- countering terrorism and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, securing the free flow of commerce and safe-guarding the security of the region, standing up for Israel's security and pursuing Arab-Israeli peace.

"Yet we must acknowledge that a strategy based solely upon the narrow pursuit of these interests will not fill an empty stomach or allow someone to speak their mind," the president said. "Moreover, failure to speak to the broader aspirations of ordinary people will only feed the suspicion that has festered for years that the United States pursues our interests at their expense."

In a major speech in Cairo in June 2009, Obama said he sought a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world based on mutual interests and respect.

But a new poll released on Tuesday by the Pew Research Center showed that the U.S. image has soured in Muslim nations in the past year, and Obama himself remains unpopular in most Muslim nations, with most people disapproving the way he has handled sweeping calls for change in the Arab world.

"We're obviously coming off of a decade of great tension and division across the region, and now, having wound down the Iraq war and continuing to do so, and having taken out Osama bin Laden, we are beginning to turn the page to a more positive and hopeful future for U.S. policy in the region," a senior U.S. official said Wednesday in a media conference call on Obama's forthcoming speech.

Saying the country faces "a historic opportunity," Obama said there must be no doubt that the United States welcomes change that advances "self-determination and opportunity."

"Yes, there will be perils that accompany this moment of promise. But after decades of accepting the world as it is in the region, we have a chance to pursue the world as it should be," he added.

He reiterated what he called "a set of core principles" that have guided U.S. response to the events in the region over the past six months -- opposing the use of violence and repression against the people and supporting a set of universal rights including free speech, the freedom of peaceful assembly and religion, equality for men and women under the rule of law, and the right for people to choose their own leaders.

"And we support political and economic reform in the Middle East and North Africa that can meet the legitimate aspirations of ordinary people throughout the region," Obama said, stressing that his country will use all the diplomatic, economic and strategic tools at its disposal in support of these principles.