NEW YORK, Sept. 24 – President Viktor Yushchenko completed his visit to the United States on Thursday without meeting U.S. President Barack Obama, whom he had been seeking to warn about the rising Russian threat in the region and perhaps bolster his domestic political standing in the process.

Yushchenko had hoped to have a brief meeting with Obama late Wednesday, but was forced to skip the meeting as he wound up addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations at the same time.

The overlap happened because Yushchenko’s address to the U.N. was delayed by two hours as previous speakers, including Libyan leader Moamar Ghaddafi, had spoken much longer than had been originally expected.

The failure to hold the meeting comes as a setback for Yushchenko, who is distantly trailing in all presidental election polls and believes the Russian threat in the region has accelerated and wanted to address the issue at the meeting with Obama.

Volodymyr Horbulin, a former Ukrainian national security advisor, in a recent analysis warned that Russia has been seeking a major destabilization in the region, including perhaps deployment of military force, to try to reverse Ukraine’s pro-Western course.

Horbulin urged Ukrainian leaders to call an international conference to provide additional security guarantees to Ukraine.

The developments come as Russian-Ukrainian relations have reached its lowest point in decades last month when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had accused Yushchenko of running “anti-Russian” policy.

As an example of such policy, Medvedev mentioned Kiev’s plans to join NATO, the move that Moscow has been vehemently opposing.

Russia sent tanks, troops and warplanes into Georgia, a former Soviet Republic seeking membership of NATO, in August 2008, and recognized the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as sovereign countries in the face of Western condemnation. Russia has deployed thousands of troops in the regions.

Yushchenko did, however, meet NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in New York on Wednesday to receive assurances that Russia will not be able to block Ukraine’s accession to the alliance.

Also, Ukraine’s acting Foreign Minister Volodymyr Khandohiy met William Burns, U.S. under secretary of state, seeking ways to “strengthen” relations of “strategic partnership” between the two countries, Interfax-Ukraine reported citing the Foreign Ministry.

Ukraine and the U.S. have agreed to hold the first meeting of their “strategic partnership” commission late October to define the concept of the new strategic alliance between the two countries, the ministry said.

“The U.S. has confirmed its readiness to work for the implementation of the political decision at the [NATO’s] Bucharest summit concerning Ukraine’s future membership in NATO,” the ministry said in a statement. (tl/ez)