U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Japan on Tuesday, starting a week-long Asia trip aimed at bolstering allied unity on North Korea, pushing for freer trade and urging joint action against the bird flu threat, Reuters reported. Senior aides played down expectations for any major breakthroughs on simmering U.S. trade disputes with Japan and China and portrayed Bush's sessions as important to maintaining strong relations with important allies. "This is not a trip where the president has to come with a deliverable or initiative. We've got a range of issues. These relations are pretty broad, pretty deep," said U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. After visiting Argentina, Brazil and Panama earlier this month, Bush now will hold talks in Japan, South Korea, China and Mongolia. The trip allows Bush to escape from the political winds of Washington, where Democrats have been accusing him of manipulating intelligence used to justify the Iraq war. It gives him a chance to take the world stage at a time when Americans have doubts about his handling of the war and have saddled him with the lowest job approval ratings of his presidency. Bush is to hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Wednesday and give a speech extolling the virtues of freedom, including some areas where Washington feels China falls short, such as respect for freedom of religion and speech, and protection of intellectual property rights. Then he travels to Pusan, South Korea to attend the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. He then goes on to Beijing for perhaps the most difficult meetings of the trip, with Chinese President Hu Jintao, and will stop briefly in Ulan Bator, capital of Iraq war ally Mongolia, before returning to Washington next Monday. --more 1408 Local Time 1108 GMT
