Then comes plenty of sports.

Bush embarked yesterday on his last venture as president to the Far East, a trip built around the Olympic Games in Beijing. The president stops en route at an Alaskan Air Force base to speak to military personnel and get his plane refuelled, then flies through the night to South Korea.

Before leaving the White House, Bush ratified a United Nations treaty intended to curb performance-enhancing drug use in sports. It ensures that the World Anti-Doping Code becomes national law and commits member nations to prevent cross-border trafficking of sporting drugs, support a national drug-testing program and withhold funding from athletes caught cheating.

The UNESCO Convention on Doping in Sport came into force early last year, but has not been ratified by all the countries that pledged to do so. Bush's signature followed Senate approval of the treaty.

"The timing of the United States' ratification, on the eve of the Beijing Olympic Games, is appropriate," Bush said in a statement. "The Convention makes clear that the use of performance enhancing drugs to gain a competitive advantage undercuts the positive attributes of sport."