WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush is getting back to business on the homefront after his trip to Latin America and will have a few days to tend to problems at home before taking off for distant lands again.

Bush returned from Panama late Monday at the end of a five-day trip that included a hemispheric summit in Argentina and was leaving for an eight-day trip to Asia on Nov. 14. That gives him precious little time to work on his domestic agenda, help win support for replacement Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito and deal with the fallout from the CIA leak case that involved two of his top aides.

Between his foreign visits, a trip home to Texas for the Thanksgiving holiday and other domestic travel in between, Bush will spend roughly two-thirds of November away from the White House.

The trips largely will keep Bush’s focus overseas while problems are mounting at home. But the president does not get to escape his woes by traveling abroad, as was obvious in Latin America.

Bush’s foreign travel on this month’s calendar were scheduled long ago to coincide with vital international summits. The Asia visit surrounds the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting and the Latin American trip began with the Summit of the Americas.

During his Asia trip, Bush plans stops in Korea, Mongolia, China and Japan. He will be the first sitting U.S. president to visit Mongolia.

The APEC summit is in Busan, South Korea, and will include discussion on economic growth, security cooperation and once again the thorny issue of free trade.

———

On the Net:

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov