Blair set for farewell Africa trip

LONDON: Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to visit Africa this week, in his last trip to the continent he has championed during his 10 years in power, his office said on Tuesday.

The 54-year-old premier will visit Libya, Sierra Leone and South Africa, a Downing Street spokeswoman said, although she did not disclose exact dates or his full itinerary for security reasons. 

Blair announced his resignation on May 10 but his successor, finance minister Gordon Brown, only formally takes over on June 27.

After visits to the United States and France this month, and with the G8 summit in Germany and European Union leaders meeting in Brussels in the offing, opponents have criticised Blair for embarking on a lengthy 'farewell tour'.

Yet Downing Street was keen to stress that far from a valedictory farewell, Blair's visit to Africa comes at a 'critical juncture', as G8 talks on climate change and ongoing world trade negotiations come to a head. 

Blair is keen to use the trip to 'build momentum for progress' on Africa and tackling climate change at next week's G8 summit in the Baltic coast resort of Heiligendamm, the spokeswoman said. 

On Africa, Blair wants the world's richest countries to make good on their 2005 pledges to grant substantial debt relief and double aid to the continent by 2010 as well as new, 'specific' commitments on education and HIV programmes.   

Earlier this month, British aid agency Oxfam said of the 50 billion dollars pledged during Britain's G8 presidency, 30 billion dollars was still outstanding.   

Elsewhere, he will seek to highlight how peace and good governance play a 'critical' role in helping Africa alongside foreign aid and debt cancellation.   

Blair is to outline proposals to build the African Union's capacity to intervene in African conflicts and boost international support.

On climate change, likely to be the main topic in Germany, Britain wants G8 leaders to agree elements for a post-Kyoto framework including the United States and emerging, energy-hungry economies like India and China. 

Blair has expressed confidence a deal can be struck.

But according to leaked documents, Washington has rejected parts of a draft declaration on curbing global warming which Germany wants leaders to adopt. 

On trade, World Trade Organisation talks are ongoing to agree cuts in agriculture subsidies and tariffs to help the world's poorest nations and developing countries.   

More generally, Libya, Sierra Leone and South Africa demonstrated in different ways 'the benefits of this government's active, values-driven foreign policy engagement with Africa', the spokeswoman said.

Britain has forged closer ties with Libya since 1999 after the north African country's leader Moamer Kadhafi agreed to hand over two suspects in the 1988 Pan Am airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.   

Following Kadhafi's announcement to end Libya's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction in 2004, London now sees Tripoli as a key partner to create better international security. 

In Sierra Leone, Blair's standing is still high after he sent British troops to help end 10 years of bitter civil war in 2000.

Britain is now Sierra Leone's largest bilateral development partner, spending 40 million pounds per year, according to the Department for International Development (DfID).

London also spends 70 million pounds annually either directly or through international agencies in South Africa and surrounding countries, DfID said.

Britain is South Africa's major trading and investment partner while bilateral relations include defence, trade liberalisation and HIV/AIDS programmes.