A relaxed and cheerful George W. Bush, on his final presidential trip to east Asia, seemed visibly relieved on Thursday to be leaving behind the vexatious foreign policy challenges that go with his office.

Delivering an Asia policy speech in Bangkok before attending Friday’s opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing, Mr Bush jokingly recalled Thailand’s historical habit of giving inconveniently large elephants to its allies and reminisced about the enthusiasm for Elvis Presley evinced by Junichiro Koizumi, the former Japanese prime minister.