Mongolia promised Thursday to give US companies a role in its booming energy sector as President Barack Obama reached out to the young democracy that is also being courted by neighboring China.

Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj capped a trip to Washington with a White House meeting with Obama, the very day that the country's Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold held talks in Beijing and received loan guarantees.

In a joint statement released by the White House, the United States and Mongolia "emphasized their two countries' common interest in protecting and promoting freedom, democracy and human rights worldwide."

The two nations also promised to expand economic ties. During Elbegdorj's trip, MIAT Mongolian Airlines said it would buy three aircraft from the Chicago-based Boeing Co. at a value of $245 million.

"Mongolia noted the important role that US companies," the statement said, "will play in the development of the country's coal, other mineral resource, infrastructure, agriculture, energy and tourism industries."

Mongolia is opening up its mining industry to foreign investors, hoping to stimulate growth and alleviate poverty. US-based Peabody Energy is among bidders to develop part of the Tavan Tolgoi mine, one of the world's largest coal fields.

Sandwiched between China and Russia, Mongolia has traditionally pursued a careful foreign policy that does not alienate its giant neighbors. But it has also sought closer ties with the United States and sent troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We regard the United of States America as our first 'third neighbor' and we would like to improve that relation," Elbegdorj said at the Brookings Institution think-tank shortly before his summit with Obama.

"We have a peaceful foreign policy," he said. "Some call it a tough neighborhood. But we exist next to each other for centuries and we know how to get along with the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation."

Elbegdorj also visited Russia for talks with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin earlier this month.

Elbegdorj, 48, was a key leader of the peaceful 1990 revolution that ended 70 years of Soviet-backed communist rule in Mongolia. He was elected in 2009 on promises to end graft and reverse the rich-poor gap in the vast nation of fewer than three million people.

Mongolia next month takes the helm of the Community of Democracies, an international initiative. He voiced hope Mongolia would serve as a "regional beacon" but stopped short of commenting directly about the state of democracy in China.

In sometimes colorful language, Elbegdorj saluted protesters who toppled authoritarian regimes in the Middle East but warned them that democracy takes time.

"Today I see joyful demonstrations on the streets of the Middle East. I think they will go through very hard times for years -- maybe 20 years -- to achieve today's level of Mongolia," he said.

"The beauty of freedom is that there is always space to correct our mistakes," he said. "When there is criticism from the public, we are forced to change and to make better decisions."

"Democracy is not a one-day, one-week, one-year, 20-year issue. I think you have to care for that every morning, like changing the diapers of a baby," he said.

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