Olmert gives Bush new ‘road map’

While George Bush might be a long way off achieving a Middle East peace deal on his first presidential trip to Israel, he does at least have a new 'road map', courtesy of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. In an exchange of gifts on the first day of the US leader's visit, Olmert gave Bush - a keen mountain biker - a GPS navigation system for bikes, pre-loaded with maps of bike trails on his Texas ranch as well as cycling routes around Israel. "To my friend George Bush from one athlete to another," read the message on the GPS. "Happy trails."

The Israeli PM also gave Bush a cycling suit of Israel's national cycling team, with "George W. 43" embroidered on the back. Olmert is the latest world leader to give the American president cycling-themed gifts. During his presidency Bush has garnered an impressive haul of patriotic cycling shirts – in grey and blue (with tights included) from Belgium’s Guy Verhofstadt, royal blue from Nato’s Dutch Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and red and white from Danish PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen. In 2006 Junichiro Koizumi, the former Japanese PM, went one further, giving the US president an electric power-assisted bicycle.

And what did Ehud Olmert – a keen football fan - get in return from Bush? A soccer ball emblazoned with the Israeli and American flags, a sports bag and cufflinks.