Bush vows to help Botswana fight Aids

10.30am

GABORONE - United States President George W Bush today vowed to help Botswana, which is battling the world's highest rate of HIV/Aids, and all of Africa turn the tide on a disease he called the continent's "deadliest enemy".

"The first thing I wanted the leadership in Africa to know is the American people care deeply about the pandemic that sweeps across this continent," Bush told reporters after talks with Botswana's President Festus Mogae.

On the first two days of his five-nation African trip in Senegal and South Africa, Bush wrestled with trouble spots Liberia and Zimbabwe. But his one-day Botswana visit focused on boosting trade and providing Aids assistance to the continent where UN experts say 29.4 million people are HIV positive.

In Washington, the US House of Representatives considered an initial US$2 billion ($3.44 billion) to launch Bush's five-year, US$15 billion ($25.1 billion) anti-Aids programme. Some Democrats called the amount inadequate and are pressing to add another US$1 billion.

"As we speak, the president is in Africa touting how his initiative will address these tragedies," said Representative Nita Lowey of New York, top Democrat on the foreign aid subcommittee. But she said Bush's contentions were "largely a fraud" because he has been unwilling to commit enough money.

With a population of just 1.68 million in an area slightly smaller than Bush's home state Texas, Botswana represents the best and worst of Africa.

Thanks mainly to its diamonds, it boasts among the highest average per capita incomes on the continent -- US$3100 per year. But the mostly desert nation shares Africa's Aids agony. One in five people has HIV/Aids, with the virus estimated to afflict about 40 per cent of its sexually active population.

"The people of this nation have the courage and the resolve to defeat this disease and you will have a partner in the United States of America," Bush said during a luncheon for 700 people.

"My country is acting to help all of Africa in turning the tide against Aids. This is the deadliest enemy Africa has ever faced and you will not face this enemy alone."

Bush praised Mogae for "first and foremost admitting that there is a problem" and then working to put a strategy in place to prevent and treat it.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, whose country is also ravaged by the disease, has been criticised for questioning links between HIV and Aids and resisting calls to make life-prolonging drugs available in public hospitals.

Mogae toasted Bush saying Washington had "answered his call" in the fight against Aids by increasing funding for a joint testing and counselling programme.

After Mogae's toast, the crowd rose to its feet and raised their glasses with shouts of "Pula, pula." An official from Botswana said the word literally meant rain, which in an arid country like Botswana, was associated with "anything good".

The luncheon in Gaborone was among the largest gatherings Bush has attended since he arrived in Africa on Tuesday. Businessmen, government officials and guests filed the elaborately decorated hall.

Tables were covered with leopard print fabric. Centrepieces were traditional cooking pots filled with flowers and ferns, and each table was decorated with huge ostrich egg shells. The group dined on Botswana beef and ended their meal with a chocolate dessert in the shape of an African woman's head.

Bush's African trip underlines a rethink on the strategic importance of the continent because of growing US reliance on its oil and intelligence that al Qaeda could use vulnerable states to hide.

"We're not just here for show," US Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters. "I think the president has been able to demonstrate to Africa and the rest of the world that he considers Africa a priority of his administration."

Bush called Mogae "a great friend in the war on terror" and praised him for "sound economic management and fiscal discipline."

Botswana is part of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a preferential trade agreement with the United States.

Mogae told Bush AGOA was "perhaps the most significant thing" Washington had done for sub-Saharan Africa in recent decades. Asked if he had requested Bush extend the lifespan of AGOA, Mogae replied with an enthusiastic, "You bet!"

Bush was greeted in Botswana at the airport by a children's chorus and about two dozen dancers moving to marimba music in traditional costumes. Bush waded into a crowd of about 1000 people, shaking hands two at a time.

After lunch Bush and his wife Laura climbed into the bed of a yellow pick-up truck to tour the Mokolodi Nature Reserve, a predator-free home to orphaned elephants, endangered rhinos, as well as zebra, giraffes, ostrich and hippos.

"It looks a lot like Crawford, doesn't it?" Bush said, a reference to the hot and parched Texas town he calls home.

Bush and his wife left Botswana for South Africa, where they will remain before visiting Uganda and Nigeria tomorrow.

- REUTERS