Powell trip to focus on Aids

Mr Powell plans to see how the four countries are tacking Aids

By Richard Lister in Washington

United States Secretary of State Colin Powell is embarking on his first official visit to Africa, where he will focus on regional conflicts and the threat from Aids.

Mr Powell, the first African-American Secretary of State, will begin his tour in Mali on Wednesday morning, after an overnight flight from Washington.

Mali is badly hit by Aids/HIV

He will move on to South Africa, Kenya and Uganda.

More than two-thirds of all the people infected with the Aids virus, HIV, live in sub-Saharan Africa.

It is a situation which Mr Powell says is perhaps the greatest disaster unfolding anywhere on Earth, with far-reaching economic, social and democratic consequences. He will see how each of the four countries on his trip is tackling the problem, and ways in which the US can help.

War talk

The second main focus of his trip will be to hear from African leaders who are mediating in regional conflicts.

One of the reasons Mali was chosen as his first stop is that President Alpha Konare is the current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which has been playing a leading role in trying to end the fighting affecting Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Mr Powell and Mr Konare will discuss Ecowas

US officials say Mr Powell wants to promote the use of such regional organisations.

Mr Powell also wants to highlight the economic reforms and vigorous democratic systems which are helping to improve conditions for the people of Mali.

In South Africa he plans to discuss efforts to end political repression in neighbouring Zimbabwe, and he will use his trip to Kenya to focus on the long-running civil war in Sudan to the north.

In Uganda, he will urge President Yoweri Museveni to stand by his promise to withdraw troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It is a busy schedule, and one designed in part to demonstrate that the Bush administration intends to stay engaged in the region, even as it insists that regional heads of government must take the lead in addressing Africa's problems.