President Bush Not Seeking Power in Africa

In a country teeming with resources the world covets, President Bush sought Wednesday to soothe African fears about American interests on the continent. He said the U.S. isn't aiming to make Africa into a base for greater military power or a proxy battleground with China. The desire for Africa's vast raw materials - oil, gold, diamonds, minerals, crops and more - has a long and often violent and exploitative history. Bush's talk about how U.S. generosity has made strides against disease and poverty encountered some skepticism here about the underlying American agenda. Bush sought to deal with suspicions about the creation of a new U.S military command dedicated to Africa. He said he knew there were rumors in Ghana that all he was coming to do was to try to convince them to put a big military base there but Bush said that was baloney. That he wanted to dispel the notion that all of a sudden America was bringing all kinds of military to Africa.