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Bush trip touts Africa successes

Bush trip touts Africa successes  
  
President Bush says Africa has been a foreign policy priority


Bush interview  
US President George W Bush is expected to arrive in the West African nation of Benin, at the start of his first presidential tour of Africa since 2003.
His six-day, five-nation visit is expected to focus on democratic reform, economic and military assistance, and the fight against HIV/Aids and malaria.

President Bush is expected to seek to allay concerns about a new military command he wants to base in Africa.

He will also try to rally leaders on the current crises in Kenya and Darfur.

In a BBC interview prior to his tour, the US president defended his stance on the Sudanese region of Darfur, where at least 200,000 people have died and two million been displaced in a five-year conflict.

Despite what he called a genocide taking place there, he said he had not wanted to send US troops into another Muslim country.

PRESIDENT BUSH'S ITINERARY

Benin - Cotonou: arrival ceremony, meets president
Tanzania - Dar-es-Salaam: meets president, tours hospital; Arusha: tours hospital, textile mill and girls' school
Rwanda - Kigali: meets president, visits genocide memorial
Ghana - Accra: meets president, state dinner
Liberia - Monrovia: meets president, visits university


'Mercy and realism' on visit
Rice to visit Kenya

He said the US had instead imposed sanctions on Sudanese leaders and companies, and that he would remind the president of China "that he can do more to relieve the suffering in Darfur".

For a president whose foreign policy has been defined by Iraq this visit is an opportunity to show the more compassionate side of his legacy, says the BBC's Laura Trevelyan who is travelling with Mr Bush.


America has spent $15bn (£7.5bn) fighting Aids overseas since 2003, and Mr Bush has recently asked Congress to double that amount.

More than one million people in sub-Saharan Africa have life-saving anti-retroviral drugs thanks to the policy.

However the policy has been criticised by some for focusing on encouraging people not to have sex in order to stop the spread of Aids - unrealistic critics say.

The US leader will visit hospitals, schools and businesses, hoping to show how US investment in health and development programmes has made a real difference to Africans.

Unfair trade?

In Benin, President Bush will meet his counterpart, Thomas Yayi, to discuss how a US-funded plan to supply mosquito nets to the under-fives is helping to tackle malaria.

  I've got a firm, heartfelt commitment to the continent of Africa



President George W Bush




Full interview transcript
Bush interview: Your reaction

But there may also be criticism of US trade policy, which international aid agencies say undermine struggling African economies.

Benin relies on cotton production, for instance - but cannot compete with US cotton because of the large subsidies paid to US farmers.

Analysts say Mr Bush may also be concerned with countering the influence of China - which has been doing billions of dollars worth of trade deals in Africa.

Also likely to be on the agenda is the location of a new American military command headquarters, known as Africom, whose primary role, according to Mr Bush, will be to work with African militaries to deal with trafficking or terror.

So far, Liberia is the only nation to have offered to host the US base. There are already some 1,700 US troops in Djibouti.

Correspondents say the idea of an increased US military presence makes regional powers such as South Africa and Nigeria wary.