Fourteen world records and a historic seven gold medals for Michael Phelps here have set the scene for an all-out assault on the Beijing Olympics by the best swimmers in the business.

With just 16 months until one of the most anticipated Games in history, the world's top swimmers used their last major championships to stake their claims.

All the signs from Melbourne point to more world records tumbling in China where the United States are likely to dominate.

The Americans ended the eight days of world championship swimming here with 20 gold medals, 13 silver and three bronze, riding roughshod over traditional rivals Australia who won just nine gold.

Eleven of the world records were set by the US, with only Italy's Federica Pellegrini (200m freestyle), France's Laure Manaudou (also 200m freestyle) and Australia's 4x100m women's medley relay team gatecrashing the party.

The invincible Phelps won seven of the US gold, smashing five world records along the way, and was only denied an eighth title after an early changeover by Ian Crocker in the 4x100m medley relay heats saw the US disqualified.

Phelps heads to Beijing with the aim of breaking Mark Spitz's record seven gold medal haul from the Munich Olympics in 1972 following the 21-year-old's six titles in Athens in 2004.

His exploits in Melbourne made him the most decorated swimmer in world championship history with 20 medals, ahead of Grant Hackett who lost his 400-800-1500m freestyle titles here.

The underdone Australian admits he needs to knuckle down after his marriage this month if he wants to reclaim his aura ahead of Beijing.

"This has inspired me to want to get back to my best," said Hackett.

While the US medal haul was split between men and women, with Kate Ziegler, Katie Hoff and Natalie Coughlin also shining, the Australian men won just one gold in the final event of the championship.

Once again Libby Lenton (five gold) and breaststroke queen Leisel Jones (three gold and one silver) dominated the women's program, along with versatile French superstar Manaudou who won two gold and two silver.

Lenton won the 50-100m freestyle and 100m butterfly while helping her team triumph in the 4x100m medley and 4x100m freestyle relays.

Jones scooped the 100-200m breaststroke double as well as the medley relay title.

"At these championships I was able to put some important things together and this is as important as a medal," said Lenton. "Here I did so many things I wasn't able to do before."

Jones added: "This meet has helped me to deal with the pressure going into Beijing. It is good practice for me."

Tunisia won its first-ever championships title (Oussama Mellouli in the men's 800m freestyle) while Canada, South Africa, Sweden, Poland and Ukraine also got swimmers on the gold medal podium.

Asian swimmers had some success, with the breakthrough of South Korean 17-year-old Park Tae-hwan, who beat Hackett to win the 400m freestyle title although he failed to qualify for the final of the 1500m event.

Japan's Kosuke Kitajima capitalised on the absence of ill American world rceord holder Brendan Hansen to reclaim his 200m breaststroke world title after finishing second to the American star swim over 100m.

Olympic hosts China failed to make an impact in the swimming pool but once again ruled the diving boards, winning nine of the 10 gold on offer with only the men's 10m platform escaping them.

AFP