Updated November 16, 2011, 7:20 pm
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•Military alliance announced
Julia Gillard and Barack Obama have agreed on military initiatives to enhance the alliance between the two nations.
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Obama pays tribute to US-Aust alliance
US President Barack Obama has paid tribute to the US-Australia alliance in a personal message written in the prime minister's visitors book.
"To the people of Australia, with whom we have stood together for a century of progress and sacrifice," he wrote after being welcomed at Canberra's Parliament House on Wednesday.
"On this 60th Anniversary of our Alliance we resolve that our bonds will never be broken and our friendship will last for all time."
Mr Obama, who is left handed, then signed his name.
During his 26-hour visit to Australia, Mr Obama and Prime Minister Julia Gillard are making an announcement on strengthening military ties between Australia and the US.
Australia, US agreed joint military initiatives
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and US President Barack Obama have agreed joint military initiatives to enhance the alliance between the two nations.
From 2012 the US will boost its military activities in Australia in stages.
The agreement between the two nations will allow America to enhance its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, Ms Gillard told an Australian and US media conference in Canberra on Wednesday.
It will involve joint training and other military exercises, and comes off the back of the US military's review of its global presence.
"I'm very pleased to announce with President Obama we have agreed joint initiatives," Ms Gillard said.
"What this means is from mid-2012 Australia will welcome a company-sized contingent of marines.
The ANZUS alliance is now 60 years old.
Ms Gillard said the increased US presence would reinforce stability in the Asia-Pacific, which she added was good for economic growth.
"We've had a comprehensive discussion," she said referring to talks the pair held earlier on Wednesday.
Mr Obama said, "In my friend Julia, we see the qualities we admire.
"Down to earth, easy to talk to and says it like it is, straight up."
Click here for more details on the joint agreement
President welcomed to Parliament House
US President Barack Obama has arrived at Parliament House to be officially welcomed at a ceremony on the forecourt.
Mr Obama's motorcade arrived about 4:30pm (AEDT) with the president in his personal, bomb-proof transport vehicle, known as 'The Beast' after a brief stop at his hotel to freshen up.
He was greeted again by the Governor-General Quentin Bryce and Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
There was a 21 gun salute as helicopters hovered overhead.
Gun smoke fanned the forecourt.
The US and Australian national anthems were played as the president stood on the dais in front of the army, navy and air force servicemen and women from the Federation Guard.
He was then invited to inspect the guard and the military band.
Mr Obama also met the Speaker of the House Harry Jenkins, the President of the Senate John Hogg, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Defence Force Chief General David Hurley and others.
After the welcome, Mr Obama went inside Parliament House to sign the prime minister's visitors' book before attending a bilateral meeting with Ms Gillard.
About 140 school children were in the main foyer to greet him as he walked through the front doors.
The Year 5 and 6 students were from Dungog Public in NSW and Darley Primary in Bacchus Marsh, in Victoria.
Darley Primary principal Anne Runnalls said the school found out about the opportunity last week.
"We having a visit here today," she told reporters in the foyer.
"I gather they have chosen us because we are a very great school."
Asked what happened when the students found out they were going to Canberra to see the president, she said, "It was a lot of squeals from the teachers."
The children only found out on Wednesday about the plan.
Asked if they were excited, they yelled, "Yes!"
Dozens of Parliament House staff gathered to watch the arrival from the first floor balcony.
US President Barack Obama has arrived in Australia.
Air Force One touched down in the national capital Canberra about 3.10pm (AEDT) - 15 minutes ahead of schedule for his first official visit.
The president smiled and waved as he descended the steps from the specially fitted out Boeing 747 jumbo at the Fairbairn defence establishment.
He was greeted by Governor-General Quentin Bryce, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Australia's ambassador to the US Kim Beazley and the US ambassador Jeffrey Bleich.
The visit comes as security tightens in the national capital, with key roads closed and US Secret Service agents supplementing a bolstered federal police presence.
Mr Obama, America's first black president, will meet Julia Gillard, Australia's first female prime minister, at Parliament House before holding a joint media conference and attending an official dinner.
The president will use a speech to a joint sitting of parliament on Thursday to thank Australia for 60 years of friendship through the ANZUS alliance, and spell out America's renewed focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
Ms Gillard and Mr Obama also are expected to spell out the broad details of a new agreement for US Marines to conduct training and exercises with Australian forces based in Darwin.
The president will meet and greet troops in Darwin on Thursday afternoon before heading to the East Asia Summit in Bali.
"Australia made overtures to the United States to increase our engagement with the armed forces of Australia and our utility of the training facilities, ranges and so forth that are there," said Admiral Robert Willard, commander of US Pacific Command.
"That was unprecedented, and we're very grateful for that overture."
Any announcements about future US force deployments would be made by Mr Obama, Admiral Willard said.
The president's motorcade will involve up to 45 vehicles, with US Black Hawk aircraft and Australian F-18 Hornet fighter jets patrolling the skies.
Mr Obama, who faces a tough election in 2012, will emphasise the importance of Australia and the Asia-Pacific for reaching his goal of doubling American exports and creating jobs in a US economy with nine per cent unemployment.
Obama will be the fifth US president to visit Australia, following Lyndon Johnson, George Bush, Bill Clinton and his immediate predecessor George W Bush.
Australia's ambassador to the US, Kim Beazley, said Mr Obama and Ms Gillard had a strong personal rapport and a "common international agenda".
"They joke a fair bit about how they were both born in `61; they see themselves as generationally empathetic," he told ABC Television on Wednesday.
Mr Obama's personal history, spending some of his youth in Indonesia, also made him more sensitive to Pacific issues.
"He looks around, knows the strategic geography and looks for compatible people in the area," Mr Beazley said.
MPs have been warned to be on their best behaviour for the president's speech on Thursday.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Harry Jenkins, has written to Senate president John Hogg issuing a standard reminder to parliamentarians to behave themselves.
Liberal senator Scott Ryan said he hoped Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, who interjected about the Iraq war and terrorism detainee David Hicks during a speech in 2003 by George W Bush, did not "embarrass the country this time".
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said Mr Obama is "certainly the best public speaker" that he had ever seen and he looked forward to cabinet's meeting with him.
Nationals leader Warren Truss said anyone who expected the prime minister, who is at the tail end of a series of global forums, to get a poll bounce from the president's visit was deluding themselves.
"Despite the distractions of the Queen, CHOGM, APEC and now a visit by US president Barack Obama, Julia Gillard can't cover up the widening cracks in her own house," he said.
Labor was bitterly divided on everything from leadership to uranium.
"Once the glow wears off from this presidential visit, Australians will wake up to the same old dysfunctional and incompetent Labor government that has to go."
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