The Obama administration turns its attention next week to Asia with Vice President Biden taking a week-long trip to the region amid China's renewed claim to a disputed territory and warnings to encroaching planes.

Biden is set to arrive Monday in Japan, then meet with leaders in China and South Korea, to re-establish connections in that region, after months of intense U.S. foreign policy efforts in the Middle East and America trying to help reach a nuclear-freeze deal with Iran.    

At the same time, disputes among Asian nations seem to be boiling over, threatening instability in a region that's vital to the U.S. economy.

American allies Japan and South Korea are barely speaking. China is butting heads with its neighbors and with the U.S. about Beijing's new air-defense zone over a group of tiny islands that have exacerbated long-simmering territorial conflicts. The U.S. on Friday advised American carriers to comply with China's demand that it be told of any flights passing through that defense zone.

Early in his presidency, Obama declared the U.S. was "all in" when it came to the Asia-Pacific. His administration pledged to increase its influence, resources and diplomatic outreach in the region, and to bolster the U.S. military footprint so that by 2020, 60 percent of the Navy's warships would be based there, compared with 50 percent now.

The concern was that as China came into its own as a superpower, its sway over other Asian nations would grow, too.

But in Obama's second term, Iran, Syria and Egypt have absorbed the president's attention on foreign policy matters. At home, the administration has been consumed with a health care rollout that's become a major political problem, while intense gridlock in Congress has bogged Obama down in domestic disputes.

Obama had to scrap a much-anticipated trip to Asia in October because the federal government was shut down, leading many in the region to question his priorities.

Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, has said the U.S. will keep deepening its commitment to Asia "no matter how many hot spots emerge elsewhere."

But Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, said he's heard loud concerns as he's traveled the region as the chairman of the House subcommittee dealing with Asia.

"In each country I've gotten this feedback: `When do you think the president is going to put some meat on the bones?"' Chabot said. "It's been mostly just talk, and mostly diplomatic engagement. They want to get beyond just talk."

Biden will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before focusing on women's issues with the new U.S. ambassador, Caroline Kennedy. In Beijing, Biden hold talks meet with China's president, Xi Jinping, vice president, Li Yuanchao, and premier, Li Keqiang.

After meeting with South Korean leaders in Seoul, Biden will give a major speech on the U.S.-Korea relationship at Yonsei University and lay a wreath at a cemetery honoring fallen U.S. troops.