By Tabassum Zakaria and Barry Moody
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bushdiscussed the bloody conflict in neighbouring Kenya withTanzania's leader on Sunday before showering him with praiseand signing over a $700 million (357 million pounds)development grant.
Bush's talks with President Jakaya Kikwete, new chairman ofthe African Union, on the second day of his tour of thecontinent covered the trouble spots of Kenya, Darfur andZimbabwe.
On Saturday, Bush threw his weight behind a power-sharingdeal to end the Kenyan violence which has killed 1,000 peoplesince a disputed presidential election in December. He issending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Nairobi onMonday to help mediation by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan.
In a joint news conference with Kikwete, Bush emphasisedthe United States wanted to help Annan and not dictate terms toend the Kenya crisis.
Bush said he and Rice had discussed with Kikwete "not whatwe should do to dictate the process but what America can do tohelp the process move along". But Washington has threatenedsanctions against anyone blocking a power-sharing deal.
Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula warned outsiders onSunday against trying to force a deal on his country.
"We encourage our friends to support us and not to make anymistake of putting a gun to anybody's head and saying'either-or', because that cannot work," he told reporters.
The government of President Mwai Kibaki has been wary ofmediation and solutions imposed from outside. Analysts saygovernment hardliners believe they have all the cards to sittight and consolidate their hold on power.
Kenya's opposition says Kibaki's party stole the election.
MUTUAL ADMIRATION
Washington views Kikwete as a model progressive leader.
"You are a good man, Mr. President, and I am proud to callyou friend," Bush told Kikwete, as screeching peacocks struttedon the lawn in front of Tanzania's white State House.
Kikwete said thousands of people in Tanzania were aliveonly because of Bush's programmes to fight malaria and AIDS --a major focus of his five-nation tour.
"You will be remembered for many generations to come forthe good things you've done for Tanzania and the good thingsyou have done for Africa," he told Bush.
Bush, on his second visit to Africa since becomingpresident, and Kikwete signed the largest grant by theMillennium Challenge Corp., which provides funding to countrieswhich pursue democracy and sound economic policies.
The grant, worth $698 million, will help improve roads,electricity and water supplies. "My hope is that such aninitiative will be part of a effort to transform parts of thiscountry to become more hopeful places," Bush said.
Kikwete told Bush the grant "speaks volumes about how deepyou have Tanzania in your heart".
The east African country is the centrepiece of a tourintended to show the successes of Bush's health andhumanitarian policies on the continent, during a presidencydominated by his controversial handling of Iraq, Afghanistanand Somalia.
Bush and his wife Laura visited a U.S.-funded AIDS clinicin a Dar es Salaam hospital.
Later, drawing attention to what is seen as a growingradical Islamist threat in the Horn of Africa and the Sahelregion, Bush met families of victims of an al Qaeda attack onthe U.S. embassy here in 1998.
Bush and his wife bowed their heads during a ceremony infront of a plaque from the bombed mission, mounted on a rock ina new embassy built in a different location after the attack.
The bombing coincided with an assault which destroyed theU.S. embassy in Nairobi. Some 240 people died in the attacks.
Bush is avoiding Africa's conflict zones on his tour.
The United States regards the presidents of Benin,Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia as a new generation ofdemocratic African leaders and is backing them with health andeducation support and some military cooperation.
(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles; writing by BarryMoody; editing by Robert Woodward)
