WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. President George W. Bush, accompanied by his wife, Laura, returned to the White House Friday afternoon after a week-long trip to Asia that culminated with a 30-hour visit to China.

The trip to Japan, South Korea and China was billed as a charm offensive from the U.S. leader who touted free trade, economic reform and support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

At the final stop on the whirlwind tour, an address at Beijing's elite Qinghua University exactly 30 years after the then-landmark visit by president Richard Nixon, Bush told students that U.S. values such as freedom were universal.

Bush urged China to embrace U.S.-style democracy and religious freedom Friday as he wrapped up a visit long on warm words but short on concrete progress in bridging Sino-U.S. divides.

"Life in America shows that liberty, paired with law, is not to be feared. In a free society, diversity is not disorder, debate is not strife, and dissent is not revolution," he said in his speech at Qinghua.

Bush's nationally televised address Friday capped a week-long Asia trip that included stops in Tokyo and Seoul and saw Bush meet with Chinese President Jiang Zemin and his heir apparent, little-known career cadre Hu Jintao.

The latter encounter, believed to be their formal introduction, came on Friday, a day after officials announced that both Chinese leaders would visit the United States this year. Bush later visited the Great Wall before departing for the United States on Air Force One, ending his visit.

As Bush was leaving China, Jiang telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf to brief them on the visit, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Both Putin and Musharraf congratulated Jiang on the "successful meeting," saying U.S.-China ties were "beneficial for world peace and development," according to Xinhua.

However, Bush's Thursday's meeting with Jiang failed to yield a hoped-for breakthrough deal under which China would curb sales of missile technology or the easing of a standoff on free trade involving soybeans.

Bush aides said lower-level discussions would focus on hammering out differences on both issues and Bush had merely intended to signal at the highest level the importance he attaches to the two matters.

Bush Thursday called on Chinese President Jiang to help stop missile proliferation as the two leaders ushered in a new era in Sino-U.S. ties exactly 30 years after a historic Cold War visit by Richard Nixon.

"It is my hope and conviction that today's meeting will have a positive impact on improvement and growth of China-U.S. relations," Jiang told reporters after the two leaders met behind closed doors.

Noting the thaw in Sino-U.S. ties brought about 30 years ago when then-U.S. president Nixon became the first U.S. head of state to visit communist China, Bush said relations were "mature, respectful and important to both our nations and to the world".

But Bush acknowledged differences as well. “Our talks were candid and that’s very positive,” he said. “We believe that we can discuss our differences with mutual understanding and respect.,” reported MSNBC.

However, no announcement was made on an arms agreement, weapons sales and exports of sensitive military technology, and it does not now appear likely that any will be signed during the president's visit, but U.S. officials said they still hoped to cobble together a deal under which China would implement a pact to curb ballistic missile exports. The agreement was first made in November 2000, but has not been implemented, reported the Washington Post.

Under the deal, China pledged to stop its export of missiles and related technologies and establish a plan to stop further exports. In exchange, the United States agreed to begin processing licenses for commercial space cooperation, including the launching of U.S. satellites by China, the Post reported.

"My government hopes that China will strongly oppose the proliferation of missiles and other deadly technologies," said Bush.

National security advisor Condoleezza Rice said later: "There is no agreement, but that work is underway."

She told reporters that, "The talks are getting a little bit better, but it's going to take a while."

Differences remained on a host of topics, including traditional irritants to Sino-U.S. ties like Beijing's record on human rights and freedom of worship, which Bush targeted in his university address.

Apparently taking aim at Jiang's assertion a day earlier that some believers in Chinese jails are "law-breakers", Bush said: "They are no threat to public order. In fact, they make good citizens."

"My prayer is that all persecution will end, so that all in China are free to gather and worship as they wish," stressed Bush, who aides said raised the issue of religious freedom in his closed-door session with Jiang.

Bush weathered a blizzard of questions about Taiwan policy after his speech, but refused to budge on his comments a day earlier that he favors "peaceful settlement" of tensions with the mainland.

"I hope it happens in my lifetime," said the president, drawing wild applause when he restated support for the "One China" policy under which Taiwan, which Beijing considers an estranged province, is part of China.

The crowd also warmly appreciated his statement that "America welcomes the emergence of a strong, peaceful and prosperous China", a sharp departure from his erstwhile description of Beijing as Washington's "strategic competitor".

Asked what changes he has noticed in China since his father headed the US liaison here a quarter-century ago, the Bush didn't hesitate: "In 1975 everybody wore the same clothes," said Bush.

"Now people pick their own clothes, just look here on the front row, everybody's dressed differently," he said, to laughter.

Meanwhile, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said that Bush's "axis of evil" comment did diplomatic damage that "will take years to repair."

"The comment was overly simplistic and counter-productive," Carter told a gathering of students, faculty, community and business leaders at a conference on the impact of terrorism at Emory University in Atlanta Thursday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in its Friday edition.

Bush dubbed Iraq, Iran and North Korea three countries which made up an "axis of evil," in his State of the Union speech last month.

Carter said Bush's statement has "thrown a monkey wrench in the efforts to bring peace to Korea," and that in Iran it set back moves toward reconciliation with the United States.