The two, accompanied by their respective delegations, will meet at the White House in Washington on Friday.
Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad told reporters on Thursday, that the meeting was important because it would afford the presidents an opportunity to review decisions taken at their last meeting, last year.
Some of the issues discussed at the previous meeting included conflict resolution and peacekeeping in Africa and what the Group of 8 could do to help, global trade negotiations, support for the Nepad, aid for developing countries and international backing for Africa's fight against HIV/Aids.
Pahad added that the meeting would also provide them a chance to work out what needed to be done to further consolidate bilateral relations between South Africa and the US.
Issues on the meeting's agenda include the status of bilateral economic and political ties; South Africa's accession to the non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council; challenges facing Africa including conflict resolution; the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) and the situation in the Middle East.
The meeting will also provide Mbeki with an opportunity to meet with the leadership of the US Democratic Party, the official political opposition to Bush's Republican Party, which last month won majority seats on both the Senate and House of Representatives.
This followed the hotly contested midterm elections recently held in the US.
"The meeting will also allow President Mbeki to discuss with Democratic Party leaders to get a sense of their thinking about developments in Africa and elsewhere," said Pahad.
He pointed out that economic relationship between South Africa and the US remained intact and that total trade between the two was reaching R60-billion and is expected to increase by approximately 11% a year.
He said South Africa was the biggest beneficiary of the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), which significantly liberalises trade between the US and 37 designated sub-Saharan African countries.
The Agoa website states that the act builds on existing US trade programs by expanding the (duty-free) benefits previously available only under the Generalised System of Preferences program.
Agoa originally covered the 8-year period from October 2000 to September 2008, but amendments signed into law by President Bush in July 2004 further extended Agoa to 2015, the website states. - BuaNews
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