LIMA Taking his final bow on the international stage, US President George W. Bush had the good fortune to be among leaders from Asia where he has managed to preserve a name dragged in the mud elsewhere.

After visiting 73 countries over eight controversial years in office, Bushs last scheduled foreign trip was a weekend summit in Peru bringing together leaders from across the Pacific Rim.

Peru would seem low-key for a valedictory trip of a two-term president, but Bush leaves office with some of the lowest approval ratings on record and soaring enthusiasm at home and abroad for his successor Barack Obama.

But in Lima, Bush enjoyed warm praise both from Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso. Both leaders said that their countries
relations with the United States improved under Bush.

While the comments may be diplomatic niceties, Bush has enjoyed warm relations with major Asian powers which welcomed his support for free trade — and fear Obama has protectionist instincts.

The Bush adminstration — its legacy tied forever to the Iraq war — hammered home its view at the summit here that Asia was its success story.

`Asia has been a very important area for us and an area in which I think we leave the relationships in a much, much stronger position than we found them,` Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters.

Bush, addressing the forum on Saturday, said that he welcomed the growing clout of China and other powers. `Some view the rise of the Asia-Pacific with suspicion and fear. America doesnt,` Bush said.

Bush resisted pressure from some Democratic lawmakers and labor leaders to slap trade sanctions on China. Despite often criticizing Chinas human rights record, Bush also gave Beijing a major boost by attending the Olympic Games.

Bush is hardly a popular figure for most Asians outside of government and business circles, but he is also not the hate figure that he has become in much of Europe and the Islamic world.

`While Bush has got a very poor image, people tend to forget that in Asia he is reasonably well regarded,` said Alan Dupont, director of the University of Sydneys Centre for International Security Studies.

`He was seen as a reasonably competent president who has understood Asias interests,` Dupont said. `It is conceivable that after looking at Obama, they may actually think that Bush was not that bad of a guy.`

In Japan, many policymakers have bitter memories of the previous Democratic administration of Bill Clinton, who pressed the worlds second largest economy hard on trade issues as it was suffering a painful recession.

In contrast, Bush raised no public fuss about the weakness of the Japanese yen throughout much of his presidency, which helped boost Japanese exports and with it the economy.

Bush also pursued an alliance with India, negotiating a controversial treaty that returns the South Asian power from the international wilderness in nuclear technology despite its refusal to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Bush has his detractors in Asia too. He has a dismal image in Pakistan, where US forces have launched strikes aimed at al Qaeda suspects, and had thorny ties with South Koreas former president Roh Moo-Hyun.

But at least in China and Japan, Asias two largest economies, some will be nostalgic as Bush leaves.

`Yes, compared to the rest of the world, Bush did better in China and Japan,` said Robert Dujarric of Temple Universitys Tokyo campus. `But its not that the standards are high.`