Bush will call attention to the conflict in Darfur, which he has also labelled genocide, when he talks later to Rwandan troops who have served as peacekeepers in the Sudanese region.

On the third stop of his five-nation African tour, Bush visited a memorial to the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered by Hutu extremists.

At a museum where the remains of some 250,000 victims are buried, he viewed pictures of children who were killed and laid a wreath at a memorial.

"It was a moving place," Bush told reporters. "It reminds me that we must not let these kinds of actions take place. The people of Rwanda need help to reconcile and move forward."

Bush said the exhibit should "remind people that there is evil in the world and evil must be confronted".

It was a sober interlude after Bush's three-day visit to Tanzania, where he was feted by cheering crowds and its leader, Jakaya Kikwete, who called him a friend of Africa.

Bush started his second trip to the continent with a brief stop in Benin and will next go to Ghana and Liberia before returning home on Thursday.

In the past, genocide survivors criticised the United States for not intervening to stop the slaughter in Rwanda.

"There's nothing we can tell him -- we do not even plan on meeting him because I am sure he knows about the plight of Rwanda genocide survivors," Theodore Simburudali, president of the Ibuka genocide survivor group, told Reuters.

STOP KILLINGS

In 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton, who was in power at the time of the genocide, visited Rwanda and apologised for not making more of an effort to stop the killings.

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, like the other presidents on Bush's tour, is regarded by Washington as one of a new generation of progressive African leaders.

Unpopular in much of the world for his handling of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush is respected in many parts of Africa where he has spent more money on aid than Clinton.

He has pledged to increase total assistance to $8.7 billion by 2010, double 2004 levels.

After holding talks with Kagame, Bush will visit an AIDS project before meeting Rwandan troops who have served in Sudan's Darfur region as African Union peacekeepers.

"We feel proud because it's recognition of our contribution towards bringing security and stability not only to Darfur but also our region. The U.S government has been our strong partner in this," army spokeswoman Jill Rutaremara told Reuters.

Bush will announce $100 million to help train and equip African peacekeepers headed to Darfur, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. Rwanda's share would be $12 million.

The United States has helped train and transport Rwandan troops serving in Darfur, where Washington says genocide has occurred during five years of violence in which international experts say 200,000 have died.

The Sudanese government denies this and says only 9,000 have died.

Bush is not visiting Kenya, despite being next door in Tanzania and Rwanda. He sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice there on Monday to help former U.N. chief Kofi Annan to end a post-election crisis that has killed 1,000 people.

Bush travels to his fourth stop, Ghana, on Tuesday evening.