BBC  Tuesday, March 16, 1999 Published at 19:40 GMT

Clinton proposes Africa debt relief at on going U.S.-AFRICA
Ministerial on Partnership for the 21st Century, Washington DC

United States President Bill Clinton has called for heavily indebted African
nations and other poor countries to be released from debt worth $70bn.
At the opening of a 46-nation US-Africa ministerial summit in Washington,
he outlined a six-point programme which he said he would urge the G7
countries to adopt when they meet in June.

The plan includes waiving some specific bilateral debts completely for the
poorest African countries, with deeper debt relief on remaining loans.

In addition, the president called for countries committed to reform to be
offered relief more quickly and urged the international community to provide
more development grants, rather than new loans.  Mr Clinton said he wanted
to ensure that no country committed to reform was left with a debt burden
that
prevented it from meeting its people's basic needs.

However, Washington Correspondent Richard Lister says Mr Clinton is likely
to meet objections to his new proposals from others in the G7.

Commitment for 'the long haul'

The three-day conference is the first of its kind and comes a year after the
president's historic tour of Africa. Three states have not been invited -
Sudan
and Libya, which the Americans accuse of sponsoring terrorism, and Somalia,
which has no functioning government.  President Clinton sought to reassure
delegates that he was working to fulfil earlier promises of a US commitment
to
the continent "for the long haul". He said: "For too much of this century,
the
relationship between the United States and Africa was plagued by
indifference
on our part.  "No one is saying it will be easy, but we are resolved to help
lower
the hurdles left by past mistakes," he said.

Convincing Congress

The president has been pressing the US Congress to approve his African trade
initiative, a plan he touted heavily during his six-nation tour, but
legislation has
been held up over its cost.

"There are many friends of Africa in Congress, and many strong opinions on
how
best to help Africa. I hope they will quickly find consensus. Africa needs
action now."

Last month, Mr Clinton revealed that the US's returns from Africa had been
twice
those from Asia, Europe or Latin America over the past five years.

The Burkina Faso Foreign Minister, Youssouf Ouedraogo, said debt relief was
vital,
but might be insufficient, because Africa's current level of economic growth
had not
brought "noticeable improvement" in living conditions.

He said: "The results of growth, Mr President, are still absorbed in large
part by debt
repayment. It is time then to go to the heart of the matter, debt
cancellation."

Aids campaign

The closed-door summit was due to focus on economic reform, human resources,
democracy, human rights and Aids, as well as trade and investments.

The US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Susan Rice, said it
was
inevitable - even desirable - that participants would bring up the region's
numerous
conflicts, although they would not be specifically addressed.

The US presidential envoy for democracy in Africa, Jesse Jackson, said the
president hoped to find a number of ways to reduce the impact of Aids,
including
joining a multinational campaign.  Mr Jackson said: "African development
policy
must deal with the impact of Aids both as a physical issue as well as an
economic
issue.

"Western allies must immediately mobilise resources, medicines and education
in
some emergency way, as we did with poverty in Ethiopia."