Bush declares African prosperity a priority

The United States President, George Bush, has outlined an ambitious agenda for advancing peace and prosperity in Africa.

He demanded that Liberia's leader step down to avert further bloodshed in his country, called for a change of government in Zimbabwe and for the dispatching of an envoy to broker an end to the long civil war in Sudan.

Speaking in Washington to a group of African leaders, business executives and investors, Mr Bush also pledged $US100 million ($150million) to help Kenya and other countries fight terrorism and made a case for expanded trade as the most powerful engine for fighting poverty on the continent.

Mr Bush is to leave early next month on his first trip as president to sub-Saharan Africa, and his speech was his most expansive statement of policy on the continent to date. It was particularly striking for his blunt calls for change in countries that have been racked by violence.

Among them was Liberia, where there has been heavy fighting between rebels and forces loyal to President Charles Taylor, who has been indicted on war crimes charges in a court run jointly by the neighbouring nation of Sierra Leone and the United Nations. "President Taylor needs to step down," Mr Bush said, "so that his country can be spared further bloodshed."

But Mr Bush gave no indication that he would respond to calls from people in Liberia to send American troops to stop the fighting there, which has intensified in recent days since Mr Taylor reversed a promise earlier this month to yield power as part of a ceasefire agreement.

Mr Bush made clear his willingness to use the diplomatic influence of the US in an effort to transform some of Africa's worst battlegrounds, including Liberia, Sudan and Congo, but he suggested he would not seek to exert power unilaterally.

He called on regional governments and pan-African organisations to end a "cycle of attack and escalation" among the warring parties and build effective peacekeeping forces.

"It is Africans who will overcome these problems," Mr Bush said. "Yet the United States of America and other nations will stand beside them."

Most recent US presidents have dipped from time to time into Africa's problems. But, in part because there is limited domestic political pressure to do so, they have rarely shown a lasting commitment to dealing with the continent's deeply rooted troubles.

But, to the surprise of many advocacy groups that have long called on the US to do more to fight disease and poverty in Africa, Mr Bush has taken an increasing interest in the region and has proposed substantial increases in spending to fight AIDS and promote economic development.

In doing so, aides said, he had been pushed along by a diverse group of advisers, from the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, to religious organisations, to his national security team.

In his half-hour speech to the US-Africa Business Summit, he laid out a vision of an Africa policy built on a moral duty to address suffering, a national interest in promoting stability in failed states and an ideological belief in spreading democracy and capitalism.

"This is a long-term commitment," Mr Bush said.

Mr Bush will visit Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria.

The New York Times