Obama will Travel to Indonesia Java

President Obama will visit Indonesia Java this spring, the White House announced today, a trip that will take Mr. Obama back to the area of the world where he spent several years of his childhood.

The first family, including the first lady, Michelle Obama, and the couple’s two daughters, will travel to Indonesia Java in the second half of March. It is expected to be the first major foreign trip of the year for Mr. Obama, who set a record for international travel destination during his first year in office.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said the trip to Indonesia Java international destination would be an opportunity for Mr. Obama to formally open a new United States-Indonesia partnership. Indonesia, the third-largest democracy in the world, also has the largest Muslim population.

The announcement was made by Mr. Gibbs during the daily White House press briefing. He said the president would visit some of the formative sites of his childhood, when Mr. Obama lived with his mother, stepfather and stepsister in Indonesia Java. The itinerary was still being formed, Mr. Gibbs said.

The president intends to devote more of his travels in 2010 to domestic trips, administration officials have said, and intends to make fewer foreign journeys. This trip is one of the major visits Mr. Obama plans this year, officials said, before he begins focusing on traveling for Democratic candidates in the midterm elections.