PRESIDENT BUSH tried to reassure nervous Asian allies yesterday that the US remains committed to free trade, despite a decisive victory by Democrats in last week’s mid-term elections that could significantly weaken his power.

In his first overseas trip since the Republicans lost control of Capitol Hill, Mr Bush, speaking in Singapore, also took aim at the many Democrats who won seats on platforms opposing war and free trade.

“We hear voices calling for us to retreat from the world and close our doors to its opportunities,” Mr Bush said at the National University of Singapore. “These are the old temptations of isolationism and protectionism, and America must reject them.” Mr Bush, beginning an eight-day visit of Asia, urged its leaders to stand firm against a nuclear-armed North Korea, which he called “the most immediate threat of proliferation” in the region.

Declaring the spread of illicit weapons to terrorists “the greatest danger in our world today,” he said: “The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States and we would hold North Korea fully accountable for the consequences of such action.”

On the eve of his visit, in which the focus is the Pacific Rim economic summit, hosted by Vietnam, a bill to improve trade with the communist country failed to win passage in the US House of Representatives.

It will be Mr Bush’s first visit to Vietnam since the war there, and is bound to raise comparisons with the situation of US troops in Iraq.

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