Bush Supports "Responsible Debt Relief" for African Nations

Speaking at the African Growth and Opportunity Act forum at the State Department on Monday, Bush also thanked countries supporting the U.S.-led campaign against terror and urged them to ratify a 1999 convention that would provide new tools for the fight.

Bush announced that the Overseas Private Investment Corp. would provide $200 million to promote more U.S. investment in sub-Saharan Africa by giving firms access to loans, guarantees and political risk insurance.

He said U.S. trade officials will set up a regional office in Johannesburg, South Africa, to help governments and businesses in easing trade laws to improve the investment climate in Africa, and set up a $15 million trade-development program to help African businesses gain access to the global market.
<br> A summit of African leaders in Dakar, Senegal, on Oct. 20 issued a declaration against terrorism that stopped short of embracing the Algiers Convention, adopted in 1999 in response to the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania a year earlier.

The Algiers Convention has been signed by 36 of Africa´s 53 governments, but only three have ratified it. Bush said its ratification is crucial because it would give African nations "additional judicial, diplomatic and financial tools to root out terrorism."