The possible deployment of US peacekeeping troops to Liberia is overshadowing President Bush's five-nation trip to Africa, which begins today when he leaves for Senegal.
After dismissing Africa as outside US security interests during his campaign for the presidency, Bush will be attempting to show a changed view of the continent. He will promote a $15 billion anti-AIDS program, a $100 million counter-terrorism initiative for eastern Africa and steps to bolster economies, trade and democracy.
He has also said he was considering sending peacekeeping troops to enforce a fragile cease-fire in Liberia, a country whose founding by freed American slaves gives it what Bush calls a "unique relationship" with the United States.
Liberian President Charles Taylor said yesterday, following Bush's demands that he leave the country, that he would accept an asylum offer in Nigeria if he could be assured of an orderly exit. The White House said Bush had made no decisions and was still gathering information.
Critics say the president's initiatives for Africa fall short, and mask a US agenda based on military expansion and corporate interest. Bush has also been criticized by African leaders, including former South African President Nelson Mandela, for invading Iraq.
Mr Bush said in interview last week that his polices were aimed to help the people of Africa. "It's very important for the United States to not only show its muscle to the world, but also it's heart," Mr Bush said on CNN International.
In addition to Senegal, Bush's first presidential trip to sub-Saharan Africa will include stops in South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria.
After he arrives in Dakar on Tuesday morning, Mr Bush will kick off his first trip as president to sub-Saharan Africa with a speech on slavery at the former slave-trading depot of Goree Island. There, many of the millions of Africans bound in chains for the New World had their last glimpse of their homeland.
"Slavery was, of course, America's birth defect. And we've been trying to deal with the consequences of it ever since and bring about a reconciliation," US national security adviser Ms Condoleezza Rice said in briefing reporters on the trip.
But Mr Bush was expected to stop short of an apology for slavery. "There is plenty of blame to go around about slavery," Ms Rice said.