By Joyce Pangco Pa?ares

PRESIDENT Arroyo is scheduled to have a ?pull-aside? meeting with US President Barack Obama in Washington on Thursday (Friday Manila time) on the sidelines of the 57th National Prayer Breakfast.

Mrs. Arroyo would also attend a reception hosted by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had earlier announced that she wanted to visit Asia on her first trip abroad this year, a member of the presidential delegation said in a telephone interview.

The source said President Arroyo would also meet with the members of the US-Asean Business Council to discuss possible investment in the country.

The presidential delegation left Manama yesterday for Washington after Mrs. Arroyo met with Prime Minister Khalifa Salman Al Khalifa to discuss job security for Filipino workers in the Middle East, as well as Bahrain?s role in the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Bahrain hosts some 45,000 migrant workers, one-tenth of whom are undocumented.

The President also hosted a dinner for the Filipino community in Manama, where she assured them that the government?s skills-retooling program for expatriate workers who would be affected by the global economic crisis was in full swing.

?We are in the process of creating a re-training program so that our expatriate workers who will return to the country will be retrained to become call center agents, welders, bakers and chefs among others,? she said.

Mrs. Arroyo cited the P1-billion expatriate livelihood support fund implemented by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration as part of the government?s ?full reciprocity program? for overseas workers whose remittances have helped keep the economy afloat.

Most of the members of the presidential delegation that accompanied the President in her week-long trip to Switzerland, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain will return to the country today as scheduled.

A source said Mrs. Arroyo would have a lean delegation to Washington, which would likely include Trade Secretary Peter Favila and Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap.

The breakfast prayer, which is held every first Thursday of February, has been attended by all sitting US presidents since the Eisenhower administration.

This year?s event is expected to draw about 4,000 guests to the Capital Hilton?s ballroom.

Only six heads of state, excluding Mrs. Arroyo, were invited to attend last year?s breakfast meeting attended by then US President George W. Bush.