JULIA GILLARD will use her first speech in the US to declare Australia has the strongest economy in the advanced world and to urge the US to be bold and optimistic in its battle to lift itself out of the economic mire.
Her speech, to be delivered late tonight Australian time, will all but sound the death knell for the Doha global free trade push, and will follow her meeting at the White House with the US President, Barack Obama.
Ms Gillard was expected to tell Mr Obama Australia was prepared to offer significant funding and other assistance to help the transformation to democracy in Egypt and that it supported the imposition of a no-fly zone in Libya, as long as it was sanctioned by the United Nations. The US is approaching the no-fly zone option cautiously because of potential adverse consequences in the wider Middle East, and it is still unclear whom to back in the push against the dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
In her speech to the US Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ''Australia beat the global recession'', Ms Gillard will say she comes to the US first and foremost as a friend to help the US reinforce its best instincts.
''To say, 'Be bold. Stay optimistic,' '' she will say, according to extracts of the speech.
''Yours remains what it has always been, a nation which is exceptional in every way - above all, in your unfailing ability to confound predictions of decline.''
There are early signs of a recovery in the US with unemployment falling below 9 per cent. But its budget remains deadlocked before Congress and the nation has debt of more than $US14 trillion.
She will warn the US against resorting to protectionism and advocate a continued push towards free trade as integral to the US recovery. But she will say that the long sought-after Doha global trade agreement must be achieved this year, before the US enters its election season, or it will never be realised.
''The round simply must conclude this year - 2011 is our last and best hope to get this done,'' she will say.
Ms Gillard will back the emerging trans-Pacific partnership, a regional agreement that promotes free trade, slashes red tape and increases uniformity of business regulations.
Mr Obama is a big fan and other regional nations, including the traditionally protectionist Japan, have embraced the concept. Ms Gillard will say it has the potential to turn the Asia-Pacific region into a free trade zone.
She will say she takes special pride in how Australia beat the recession, pointing out that Australia, the US and Europe entered the global crisis with similar unemployment rates.
''Australia's peaked at 5.8 per cent. That is the real measure of our success,'' she will say. She will recommit herself to returning the budget to surplus in 2013, a deadline for other G20 nations to try to halve their deficits.
She attributes Australia's endurance to the reforms of the Hawke and Keating governments, the Howard government, the economic stimulus of the Rudd government, the Reserve Bank's cutting of interest rates, and the mining boom.
After her meeting with Mr Obama, Ms Gillard was scheduled to hold separate talks with the US Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, and the US Trade Representative, Ron Kirk.
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