Bush starts Africa trip, Kenya in spotlight

President George W. Bush began a five-nation tour of Africa today that will highlight U.S. health, education and pro-democracy projects there and also seek to advance efforts to end Kenya's post-election crisis.

Bush, accompanied by his wife Laura, arrived in the small West African state of Benin, the first stop on a trip that will also take him to Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia.

They were greeted by a military honour guard and a group of colourfully-dressed women dancers who bobbed to traditional African music at Benin's Cadjehoun international airport.

Bush was meeting Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi in a brief stopover before flying on to Tanzania.

Bush's visit, his second to Africa, takes him to five countries carefully chosen to show a different face from the poverty-plagued and conflict-stricken continent normally portrayed by the world's media.

Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia are now relatively stable states whose presidents are viewed by Washington as a new generation of leaders with democratic credentials who can show the positive potential of Africa.

"(President Bush) believes all of these countries, their leaders, are on the path of the kinds of governments that we want to partner with," White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters aboard Air Force One before Bush arrived in Benin. "They're all work in progress," he added.

Although Bush is not visiting African countries in crisis or turmoil such as Sudan's Darfur or Kenya, the White House hopes his visit will lend weight to moves to resolve the Kenyan post-election conflict that has killed 1,000 people.

Bush has announced plans to send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Kenya during his Africa tour.

Hadley said Rice's visit to Kenya would last only "a matter of hours" and was intended to help accelerate a proposed deal between the government and opposition which is being brokered by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan.

"It's basically to go in, give some impetus, but then step out and let Kofi Annan continue his diplomacy," he said.

"They're making incremental progress towards a political framework whereby there would be a way ahead. Still working on power sharing, still working on a way to resolve questions about the elections," Hadley said.