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Africa: Bush Begins Africa Trip With Stop in Benin
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The NEWS (Monrovia)
19 February 2008
Posted to the web 19 February 2008
Monrovia
President George W. Bush commenced his African tour on Saturday focusing more on its successes than its conflicts.
"When you herald success, it helps others realize what it possible," the president said in Benin, the first of five nations Mr. Bush is visiting. "This is a large place with a lot of nations and no question not everything is perfect. On the other hand, there are a lot of great success stories and the United States is pleased to be involved with those success stories."
According to frontpageafrica website, President Bush and Benin's President Boni Yayi held a joint news conference at Cadjehoun International Airport in Cotonou, Benin, Saturday. Mr. Bush is visiting Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia on his Africa trip this week.
Even as Mr. Bush defended an emphasis on the positive, he stepped into one of Africa's most disturbing recent developments. December's presidential elections in Kenya unleashed weeks of ethnic violence that left more than 1,000 people dead and displaced hundreds of thousands, a worrisome sign in a country typically regarded as one of Africa's most stable.
President Bush endorsed a power-sharing agreement to help resolve the dispute. He is dispatching Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to peel off from his entourage on Monday to make a quick trip to Nairobi, and said she would deliver his view.
"The key is that the leaders hear from her firsthand U.S desires to see that there is no violence, that there be power-sharing agreements that will help this nation resolve its difficulties," the president said.
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Kenya's political rivals announced a 10-point plan on Friday to resolve their political crisis after weeks of negotiations. However, they remained deadlocked over power sharing.
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