Heavy lifting ahead for Obama on diplomatic agenda

By Caren Bohan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After his efforts at diplomacy on the international stage last week, President Barack Obama faces some particularly daunting foreign policy decisions about the Afghan war, a nuclear Iran and an elusive Middle East peace.

The world's problems only add to the issues plaguing Obama at home: nearly 10 percent unemployment and a fractious Congress squabbling over his plans to overhaul healthcare and curb the gas emissions that are warming the planet.

Having made his debut at the United Nations and hosted the Group of 20 financial summit in Pittsburgh, Obama has returned to Washington to a three-month make-or-break period before lawmakers start campaigning for 2010 elections.

"He's been setting the stage for progress on a lot of issues where the progress is going to be very difficult," said George Perkovich, a nuclear policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

None of these problems was solved last week.

Having brokered a handshake rather than a breakthrough between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Obama will have his Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, carry on negotiating and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton report back in October.

AFGHANISTAN, IRAN

On Afghanistan, Obama will weigh options with aides in the face of disagreement over a request from General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, for tens of thousands more U.S. troops.