A Hamiltonian formulation of the relativistic guiding center drifts is extended to anisotropic pressure plasmas. The magnetic coordinates devised by Boozer are adapted to the anisotropic pressure model and retain canonical properties for two-dimensional and three-dimensional toroidal plasma equilibria including finite electrostatic perturbations provided that any electromagnetic perturbation only alters the parallel component of the vector potential. A mapping technique from arbitrary flux coordinates is outlined. A direct evaluation of the relativistic drift velocity recovers the equations of motion derived from the Hamiltonian formalism except for ignorable higher order terms in the evolution of the canonical angular variables and the effective parallel gyroradius. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.