After emotional farewells to members of his staff, the author of detente with China and the Soviet Union, and the man who withdrew the United States from the war in Vietnam flew with his wife, Pat, to their home in California.

Perhaps the greatest personal tragedy of his spectacular roller-coaster career was that, in the end, his country judged that his foreign triumphs were outweighed by the misdeeds of the Watergate scandal, when his aides stooped to burglary of the Democratic Party's national headquarters.

Although he apparently was not himself involved in the planning, Nixon finally admitted after months of denials that he had, in fact, sought to cover up the connection between the burglary and his handpicked team of counsellors.

The world responded with relief, shock, dismay and wonder over the Nixon resignation, but the change in leadership was not expected to have a major impact on relations with the United States.

Most governments said they expected little change in the basic thrust of American foreign policy under president Gerald Ford.

Soviet leaders were worried about the future of the detente forged by Nixon and some Arab spokesmen suggested Ford might upset the recently improved ties between Washington and the Arab world.

Common Market and Nato diplomats expressed sorrow over Nixon's personal plight but showed a measure of relief at the resignation.

French newspapers lavishly praised Nixon for his foreign accomplishments and Le Figaro suggested he might eventually be regarded as the greatest president in American history.

Let Cathay in or else, the UK told Japan as it threatened to retaliate against Japan Air Lines unless the Japanese honoured an agreement to allow Cathay Pacific Airways to fly a Hong Kong-Osaka-Seoul route.

A source involved in negotiating the dispute said it was made clear to the Japanese that sanctions could be extended possibly to JAL's Hong Kong-Singapore and Hong Kong-Jakarta services.

The United Kingdom had rights under an air service agreement with Japan to operate the route from Hong Kong to Seoul via Osaka, but the Japanese had baulked at honouring the agreement.

The first stage of opening the Hong Kong-Osaka-Seoul route for Cathay was to have begun that January but the Japanese blocked it on the grounds it would have contributed to noise pollution at Osaka.

The big question being asked in Hong Kong was whether the new airport was going to be built on Lantau.

Experts from the Civil Aviation Department and an American aviation consultancy firm were reported to have pinpointed a site for a massive airport complex to replace Kai Tak.

The location was being kept top secret, but was believed to be on Lantau after 15 other sites had been examined and rejected.

The Soviet Union accused Peking of using Hong Kong and Macau as centres of illegal activities, in its latest propaganda blast against China.

The official news agency Tass said China was alarmed by Portugal's moves towards granting independence to its territories because it was afraid of losing Macau as a centre for profiteering deals.

'Macau has long been a real centre of illegal Chinese trade in gold, currency and narcotics, a centre of all kinds of illegal and semi-legal profiteering deals,' according to a commentator.

He claimed Macau played a similar role to Hong Kong, with the two places helping boost China's enormous annual profits from the illegal drugs trade.