New York - Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska met her first foreign head of state on Tuesday as she crisscrossed New York City receiving foreign policy tutorials in advance of her vice presidential debate next week with Sen. Joe Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Palin - who scheduled a series of meetings with world leaders who were in town for the U.N. General Assembly - sat down first with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, who told her of the need for more troops in his country and bonded with her over his baby son, Mirwais. Then she was whisked up to the Colombian Mission to talk free trade and renewable energy with President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia. She capped off her day meeting with the eminence grise of Republican foreign policy, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who spoke with her about Georgia, Russia and NATO.

It was Palin's introduction to motorcade diplomacy, a lightning round of meetings and photo opportunities designed to produce pictures to portray Palin - who lacks much in the way of foreign policy experience, has traveled abroad little and had never met a foreign head of state before Tuesday - at ease with world leaders.

Democrats, and some Republicans, have tried to make Palin's lack of foreign policy experience an issue in the campaign.

Sen. John McCain's campaign officials have made three main points so far when asked about Palin's foreign policy credentials.

They invoke geography, noting Alaska's proximity to Russia, as Palin did when she told ABC News that “you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.” Other times they cite her resume, noting that as governor she has been commander of the Alaska National Guard for nearly two years. And they often pivot to her work on energy policy, as McCain did last week, when he said, “I'm proud of her obvious knowledge of this nation's energy needs, because that's a national security issue.”

But with next week's debate looming, the McCain-Palin campaign has put her on an accelerated course in foreign policy, and scheduled a series of meetings with world leaders and foreign policy mandarins in New York on Tuesday and today.

It was not her first trip to New York; she was here last October and visited Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg at City Hall. And while she rode from leader to leader, sometimes causing gridlock along the way, her husband, Todd, took their five-month-old son Trig and two of their daughters, Willow, 14, and Piper, 7, on the town. They took pictures with the Statue of Liberty in the background, ate hot dogs in Central Park and stopped in at F.A.O. Schwarz, where Piper tried on some princess dresses, the campaign said.

Palin's morning began with a two-hour briefing at her Midtown hotel from the director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell. The briefings are offered as a courtesy to the presidential and vice presidential candidates, and the campaign said that she was the last of the four candidates to receive one this year. Then it was off to the first of what was scheduled to be two days of meetings.

The point of the meetings was not so much to cram Palin full of information, according to a McCain campaign adviser who has worked with Palin, but to introduce her to people like Kissinger so that she will feel comfortable calling on them for advice and counsel as the campaign continues.

Palin was accompanied on her rounds by Randy Scheunemann, a senior foreign policy adviser to the McCain campaign, and Steve Biegun, a former staff member of President Bush's National Security Council.

”Her primary purpose was to develop a relationship and to listen,” said Biegun, who quickly added, “I think she's already fully prepared to be vice president.”

Visits between U.S. officials and foreign heads of state are often perfunctory, formal affairs, and reporters are rarely let in for more than a brief photo opportunity. But the McCain-Palin campaign sparked a brief media rebellion when it initially insisted that only camera crews could cover the first few seconds of each meeting. That proviso was reversed under pressure after the press corps threatened to boycott the events unless at least one reporter was allowed for those opening seconds as well, who could then share the information with other reporters.

Palin has been carefully shielded from the press since she was added to the Republican ticket nearly a month ago, granting only a handful of interviews, holding no news conferences yet and exchanging only a few words with reporters on the campaign trail. (When Palin said Monday at a rally with McCain in Media, Pa., “I want to ask you a few questions, Media,” her remark was quickly e-mailed to reporters by a Democratic operative under the subject line “Irony.”)

At her first meeting Karzai spoke with Palin about the contributions of the Alaska National Guard, and said he had flown in a C-150 with some of its members, Biegun said. A television news producer who was allowed in the room for the brief photo, or “spray,” reported that Karzai spoke of the birth of his first child last year.

”What is his name?” Palin asked.

”Mirwais,” Karzai replied. “Mirwais, which means, 'The Light of the House.' “

”Oh, nice,” Palin responded, at one point patting her heart.

”He is the only one we have,” Karzai said.

Later, asked how the meeting went, Karzai said, “It was fine.” Asked again, he said, “It was a very good meeting; we talked a lot about a lot of things.”

The next stop was with Uribe of Colombia, who has a warm relationship with McCain. The candidate visited Uribe during an unusual campaign trip to Colombia over the summer to express support for a free-trade agreement.

Palin wrapped up the day with Kissinger. Biegun said they discussed Russia, China and Iran, among other things. As photographers were led in to take pictures of them, Kissinger could be heard saying that he gave someone - just who was unintelligible - “a lot of credit for what he did in Georgia,” according to the reporter who was allowed to watch.

”Good, good,” Palin said. “And you'll give me more insight on that, also, huh? Good.”

The photographers were ushered out. When Palin emerged from the building, a news producer asked her how it went, and she mouthed the words, “It was great.”

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