NIGERIA: President George W Bush has warned he would not allow terrorists to use Africa as a springboard to threaten the world, ending a trip that underlined a major US policy shift toward the continent.
Mr Bush, wrapping up his African tour in Nigeria on Saturday, a key US oil supplier, issued fresh vows to help restore peace to Liberia, promote economic development on the world's poorest continent and inject funds for Africa to fight its AIDS scourge.
"We will not allow terrorists to threaten African people or to use Africa as a base to threaten the world," Mr Bush said in a speech in west Africa's powerhouse state, on the last stop of his first trip to black Africa as president.
Mr Bush has reassessed Africa's strategic importance because of growing US reliance on its oil, as well as intelligence that its porous borders and swathes of lawless territory could be attractive to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.
The US president, who visited five African states in a whirlwind five days, has pledged a $100 million package to help east African nations bolster their security following recent attacks in the region, widely blamed on al-Qaeda.
Mr Bush praised Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose country is the fifth-largest crude oil exporter to the US, for his leadership on issues such as Liberia.
But he reiterated he had made no decision yet on whether to answer growing calls across Africa for him to contribute US troops to a peacekeeping mission to enforce a fragile ceasefire in Liberia's almost non-stop 14 years of civil war.
"I told the President we'd be active [in Liberian peace efforts]. The definition of that will be when we understand all the parameters," said Mr Bush, who has sent military experts to Liberia to make assessments.
Mr Obasanjo has played a major role in the peace drive over Liberia, a country founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century, and is ready to commit troops to a planned, mainly African, peacekeeping force.
Mr Bush repeated demands for Liberian President Charles Taylor to step down as a key part of efforts to end the blood-letting.
Mr Taylor has accepted a Nigerian offer of asylum but says peacekeepers, including US troops, must be in place first.
The troops issue is a tough one for Mr Bush. The United States already has tens of thousands of troops tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Washington's last African foray ended with its soldiers making a bloody exit from Somalia 10 years ago.
The dangers of any mission were underscored on Friday when Liberia's main rebel faction threatened to fight any peacekeepers deployed before it steps down. The rebels fear such a deployment would merely prop up President Taylor. - (Reuters)