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The US will release its first "State of Africa" report in Johannesburg and other African capitals on Monday.

The report, compiled by Charles Stith, former US ambassador to Tanzania, claims to tell what is going on in Africa as the leaders of the continent themselves see it.

It is a preliminary to the African presidential or government leaders' roundtable meeting, which will convene in London on April 22 and continue in Boston, US, on April 27 and 28.

The agenda will be dominated by comment on ways in which to improve capital flows into Africa.

"Previous reports on Africa that I had seen were incomplete," Stith said at a briefing at the US Embassy in Gaborone yesterday.

"There was nothing from the leaders themselves on what they thought or about the path on which they were taking their countries".

This report chronicled the contributions of select African presidents to the growth and development of their respective countries, he said.

"It is a statement that Africa is more than the sum of its problems. It is a counter to much of the commentary on Africa, which focuses on the problems, without mentioning Africa's potential," Stith said.

"A report like this helps provide greater insight into the aspirations and issues that are important to the leadership on the continent of Africa," he added.

Africa was important for the US - and Stith admitted oil was one reason for that.

"As the Middle East has become muddled there is a clear strategy to increase the amount of oil the US imports from Africa," he said.

"There must be an appreciation that Africa's economic security is ultimately related to America's economic and national security.

It is not simply the moral imperative to respond to Africa's problems that begs US attention. The necessity of helping Africa fulfil its potential is equally compelling".

Stith's report may complete the picture, but maybe not as objectively as he would like. It is largely compiled from State of the Nation messages previously broadcast by the Heads of State.

"We have not analysed or updated them," Stith admitted at the briefing.

The report features 14 countries: Benin, Botswana, Cape Verde, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.

The April "roundtable" will be strongly on trade and investment related.

Stith will by then have completed a seven nation swing through Africa, which will prominently include all of US President George W Bush's Africa trade hubs; the Southern Africa hub is in Botswana, others are in Ghana and Kenya. He will have also visited Mauritius and Tanzania.

The hubs were set up over 2003 to complement the US initiative of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).

Agoa, described by Bush as "regional hubs for global competitiveness", they are part of the African Development and Enterprise Programme, which the US has funded with $5-million.

In South Africa, Stith has already briefed De Beers' chairperson Nicky Oppenheimer on the roundtable, in Botswana President Festus Mogae and former President Sir Ketumile Masire.

"South Africa and Botswana are linchpins of development in Africa... President Masire is respected around the continent, he is a great man, a man of stature," Stith said.

Advance briefs from the report quote Botswana as being singled out in the Economic Freedom of the World Report 2003 as "a shining example of freedom" and ranked alongside Norway and Japan as having one of the world's highest levels of economic freedom.

In no area is the cooperation more noticeable than in the support the US gives Botswana's in its fight against HIV-Aids, an epidemic which the US has long considered a threat to the stability of southern Africa.

"Aids-related deaths of large numbers of citizens of African countries could affect development and the effectiveness of public administrations," former US ambassador to Botswana John Lange said.

The US in January further swelled Botswana's Aids war chest.

Under Bush's President's Emergency Plan for HIV/Aids Relief (Pepfar) it gave Botswana a $9,5-million first instalment of a $19-million grant to fight Aids.

Overall, Pepfar commits to a five-year $15-billion approach to combating the disease in 15 countries in Africa and the Caribbean.

"Botswana's success in having its entire first instalment application approved is a testament to the hard work and coordination of the government," said US ambassador to Botswana Joseph Huggins. – Sapa.

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