Nairobi/Dar es Salaam - US President George W Bush, during a visit to Tanzania on Sunday, called for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, saying the people of the ailing southern African country deserve a government that respects human rights. "There's no doubt the people of Zimbabwe deserve a government that serves their interest and recognizes their basic human rights and holds free and fair elections," Bush told journalists after talks with his Tanzanian counterpart Jakaya Kikwete.
Fair elections in Zimbawe, where much-criticized long-ruling President Robert Mugabe is standing for re-election in March, also "happen to be in the interest of the world, as well," he added.
Bush and Kikwete signed a comprehensive 698-million-dollar agreement to combat poverty in the East African country. It aims to improve infrastructure, electrification and access to clean water within the framework of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
Tanzania is the US president's second stop on his five-nation tour of Africa that kicked off in Benin in West Africa on Saturday.
While in Benin Bush stressed the necessity of ending the ethnic conflict in Kenya. He said he is sending US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Kenya on Monday to support negotiations mediated by former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan.
"The key is that the leaders hear from her firsthand the United States' desires to see that there be no violence and that there be a power-sharing agreement that will help this nation resolve its difficulties."
He also called for "urgent action" in ending the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region.
Before heading for Tanzania Bush stressed US support for the fight against malaria: "I stand here as a friend and partner ... prepared to fight sickness and poverty."
The US wanted to ensure that every Beninese child under the age of five could sleep under a malaria net, he said. Malaria is often fatal, especially in young children.
In Tanzania, Bush also stressed the importance of fighting malaria and AIDS. "It breaks my heart to know that little children are dying needlessly because of a mosquito bite," he said.
In the coming days, Bush is to travel on to Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia during his second visit to Africa - one in which he will focus especially on the fight against poverty and diseases such as AIDS and malaria.
Before his departure, Human rights watchdog Human Rights Watch, accused the Bush administration of having gambled away opportunities in the fight against AIDS in an approach based on sexual abstinence rather than the distribution of condoms.
