US President George W. Bush encouraged South Africa?s role as regional power and its trade ties with the United States, while playing down differences over the war in Iraq.

Bush came to South Africa from Senegal, where he told West African leaders he would help end Liberia?s civil war but said he had not yet decided whether to send peacekeeping troops to a country founded by freed American slaves.

On the second leg of his five-day African tour, Bush was also expected to urge South African President, Thabo Mbeki to step up efforts to promote free elections and economic reforms in neighbouring Zimbabwe.

The differences between Washington and Pretoria over Zimbabwe are stark. The United States is pushing the troubled southern African state?s neighbours to put more pressure on President Robert Mugabe to reform. The United States and the European Union criticised Mugabe?s re-election last year as flawed.

Mbeki, however, has chosen ?quiet diplomacy? in dealing with Mugabe, a former liberation fighter and old ally of Mbeki?s ruling African National Congress accused by critics of stifling opposition and running a once vibrant economy into the ground.

In an interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Mbeki said he would not have ?anything new? to tell Bush on Zimbabwe.

?In our view a solution to the problems of Zimbabwe must come from the leadership of Zimbabwe,? he said. But he added that despite their differences he had a very good relationship with Bush and his administration.

In Harare, Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe?s main opposition movement, applauded Washington for its tough stance while attacking Mbeki?s approach.

Bone of contention

?We want to thank the aggressive approach taken by the American government. If that is going to help resolve the crisis, then it is most welcome,? Tsvangirai said.

?Our nation is a pariah nation. Mbeki knows it, everyone on the African continent knows it, but they choose to be in solidarity with a dictatorship,? he told a meeting.

Other bones of contention between Washington and Pretoria include the US-led war in Iraq and a number of groups, among them the ANC, plan to hold protests against Bush?s visit. South African opposition to the war has been expressed most bluntly by former South African President, Nelson Mandela, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who said Bush was wrong to lead a war without UN approval. Mandela, who has said he had little more to say on Iraq to Bush, will be out of the country during his visit.

Pretoria has also been rankled by a US decision last week to include South Africa in a list of 35 countries that will no longer receive military aid because of its refusal to sign an agreement exempting US citizens from possible prosecution by the new International Criminal Court.

HIV problem

Bush will dine with South African business leaders and Mbeki told the SABC he hoped the US president would use his influence to drum up more American investment in South Africa.

Mbeki?s government has pursued market-friendly policies and fiscal prudence in a bid to woo foreign investors.

Bush?s Africa trip is aimed at promoting democracy and economic development on the continent, and spotlighting US initiatives to fight AIDS and terrorism. With an estimated 4.8 million people believed to have the HIV virus that causes AIDS, South Africa has more sufferers of the disease than any other country.

Bush will take a day trip to Botswana today, then leave Pretoria tomorrow for Uganda and Nigeria. He wraps up his African trip in Nigeria and returns to Washington on Saturday.

Randall Mikkelsen