I look forward to the trip... I look forward to focusing on the challenges that we must face together.

US President George W Bush

Speaking at a dinner in Washington honouring the late anti-apartheid activist Leon Sullivan, Mr Bush vowed that the United States will help African nations with responsible policies to help combat disease, poverty and illiteracy.

Mr Sullivan, the Baptist reverend who turned much of his attention from civil rights in the United States to South Africa's system of apartheid, died in 2001 at the age of 78.

Mr Bush also said he wanted US education aid to the continent to be increased by $100 million over the next five years.

Mr Bush's Africa trip will follow in the footsteps of former US President Bill Clinton's journeys to sub-Saharan Africa in 1998 and 2000.

HIV/Aids

However, details and the itinerary of the trip, which is expected to include Sub-Saharan Africa, were not disclosed.

Education aid will provide scholarships and textbooks for African children

"I look forward to the trip," Mr Bush said.

"I look forward to focusing on the challenges that we must face together."

Mr Bush also reiterated his call for a half-billion dollars in aid to battle HIV/Aids in Africa and the Caribbean - with a focus on slashing transmission of the deadly virus from mothers to their babies.

He also emphasized the importance of the 2000 African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) - which provides beneficiary countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with the most liberal access to the US market available to any country or region that lacks a free trade agreement with the United States.

But the US president made it clear that the United States "will not build this new Africa; Africans will."

The education aid will go to training more than 420,000 teachers and provide 250,000 scholarships for girls, he said.

US is pledging a half billion dollars to battle Aids

It will also provide 4.5 million textbooks for African children in a joint venture with black US colleges and universities.

AGOA is expected to reinforce African reforms efforts, improve access to US credit and technical expertise and establish dialogue on trade and investments.