Bush discusses Liberia with West African leaders

United States President George Bush discussed the crisis in Liberia with seven West African leaders in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, on Tuesday before visiting the former slave gateway island of Goree. Bush arrived in Dakar, at 7:30 a.m GMT, at the biginning of his 8-12 July, five nation African tour. He was accompagnied by his wife, Laura, the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell and National Security Advisor, Condoleeza Rice among other officials. Shortly after arrival, Bush proceeded to the Senegalese presidential palace to meet Presidents Matthieu Kerekou of Benin, Pedro Pires of Cape Verde, Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia, John Kufuor of Ghana, Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali, Mamadou Tandja of Niger, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone and host Abdoulaye Wade. "The talks were about the situation in Liberia and the [impending] departure of President Charles Taylor," Babacar Diagne, Wade's communication advisor told IRIN in Dakar. Bush was quoted as telling international reporters in Senegal that he would work with the United Nations and African states to preserve a ceasefire in Liberia but had not yet decided whether to send U.S. peacekeeping forces. "The United States will work with ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States). The United Nations will be involved," he was quoted as saying. "We’re in the process of determining what is necessary to maintain the ceasefire," he added. War-torn Liberia suffered a resurgence in fighting between government and rebels last month, before a ceasefire was signed on 17 June. But fighting resumed, before another truce was agreed to "avoid a humanitarian disaster." Bush has demanded that Taylor resigns as a first step towards resolving decades of conflict in the West African country. On Sunday, Taylor met Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and said he would accept asylum in Nigeria. But he insisted he would only leave after a peacekeeping force arrived in the country. On Monday, the US government sent an assessment team to Liberia, ahead of a possible deployment of a peacekeeping troops. After meeting West African leaders, Bush took a boat ride to Goree island, off the coast of Dakar, where Africans were shipped-off to be sold into slavery in the Western World. He toured a slave house, built by the Dutch in 1776, before making a speech in which he described the slave trade as "one of the greatest crime" in history. "At this place, liberty and life was stolen and sold. Human beings were delivered, weighed, sorted according to marks of commercial enterprise and loaded as cargo, never to return," Bush said. Security around Dakar was tight with hundreds of Senegalese policemen, US security agents and army vehicles deployed in the main streets. Senegalese airspace was closed, except for surveillance helicopters flying over the presidential palace, the port and Goree island. Dakar city centre was closed. Most workers missed work because of lack of transport. Many offices were closed. People listened to a live radio broadcast of the visit on portable radios and others watched on television. After visiting Goree, Bush was due to leave for South Africa on the second leg of his tour that will take him later this week to Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria. According to the US State Department, the tour is to promote Bush's US $15 billion HIV/AIDS initiative, the Millennium Challenge Account, a new education initiative where the US plans to spend $600 million over five years and a $100 million program to fight terrorism in East Africa.