The crew used Discovery's robotic arm to survey the right wing and nose cap, one day after filming the left wing, and will wait for NASA analysts to clear the shuttle for its return home, scheduled for Monday.

Earlier, Discovery pilot Mark Kelly guided the shuttle away from the ISS after an intense nine-day stay that included three successful spacewalks aimed at improving shuttle safety and resuming construction of the orbiting laboratory.

"Have a safe journey back, soft landing and we'll see you on the ground in a few months," ISS flight engineer Jeffrey Williams told Discovery's six astronauts.

The late inspection for space debris hits, a first for shuttle missions, was added to Discovery's schedule as part of NASA efforts to dramatically improve safety three years after the Columbia shuttle disaster.

"We are going to look at it one more time," Kelly said in television interviews. "But based on what we have seen so far and on what the risk is, I think all of us feel really comfortable."

Discovery remained relatively close to the ISS so it can return to the station if serious damage is found.

Lead flight director Tony Ceccacci said NASA would announce Sunday the results of the inspection and the "official go, no go for returning home or having to re-rendezvous (with the ISS)."

Discovery has been declared free of damage that could have been caused by debris during the July 4 liftoff, just the second launch since the Columbia accident.

Columbia's heat shield was damaged by foam insulation that peeled off its external fuel tank during blastoff, causing it to break apart as it returned to Earth in February 2003, killing all seven astronauts on board.

Discovery's fuel tank shed a small amount of foam, which did not damage the shuttle.

Discovery is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Monday. But it could land at an air force base in California in the event of bad weather in Florida.

NASA has found a tiny leak in one of the shuttle's three auxiliary power units (APU) that power the hydraulic systems operating the rudder and landing gear.

Officials said the shuttle could land with just two APUs, if necessary.

The two shuttle flights undertaken since the Columbia accident have been aimed at improving space flight safety before NASA resumes regular launches to finish building the ISS by 2010, when the three-shuttle fleet will be retired.

NASA says the ISS is a key part of US ambitions to send astronauts back to the moon and eventually send the first manned mission to Mars.

"We feel like we have done all the tests and met the objectives, and we feel like the whole program is back on track," mission specialist Lisa Nowak said in media interviews.

Astronauts Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers successfully performed three key spacewalks, spending more than 21 hours outside to test shuttle repair techniques and fix equipment critical to the construction of the ISS.

Discovery also delivered more than three tonnes of clothes, food and research equipment to the ISS and will bring back about two tonnes of trash and broken equipment from the orbiting laboratory.

The shuttle also brought European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter of Germany to the ISS for a six-month mission.

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