SEOUL, South Korea Despite intense efforts, the United States and South Korea failed today to conclude a long-sought free-trade deal, a setback for President Barack Obama as he confronts tensions abroad and at home on a series of economic fronts.

The trade pact was one prize American officials would have liked to bring home from the president’s 10-day trip to Asia. Instead, Obama could merely pledge that negotiations would conclude in weeks rather than months.

Denied the deal sought by U.S. business, Obama also was forced to defend policies to climb out of the deep economic slump against foreign suspicions that the U.S. is engineering a weak dollar.

If that was not enough, Obama also had to confront critics, including leaders of his own Democratic Party, who denounced proposals by the chairmen of a bipartisan commission he assembled to recommend solutions to the nation’s burgeoning deficits and debt.

All in all, today’s developments summed up the problems and conundrums facing a president weakened by election results, reeling from a domestic unemployment rate that stubbornly won’t budge from 9.6 percent, and facing a restive international community suspicious about the U.S. response to its economic crisis.

The president is on the third stop of a four-country visit to Asia.