President Bush will unveil a plan to offer cash grants and trade privileges to reward poor nations that embrace economic and political reforms, the White House said.
Congressional sources said Mr Bush would commit to providing no less than $5 billion, chiefly to impoverished African nations undertaking reforms, over a three-year period starting in the fiscal 2004 budget. The White House refused to confirm those figures.
The offer, expected to benefit such countries as Uganda and Mozambique, came ahead of next week's U.N.-sponsored development conference in Monterrey, Mexico, which Mr Bush and other world leaders will attend.
Mr Bush will make the announcement in an address to the Inter-American Development Bank, where he is expected to be joined by Irish rock star Bono.
Bono will visit Africa in May with the US Treasury Secretary, Mr Paul O'Neill.
The US and Europe have been at odds for a number of months over the Bush administration's call for the World Bank and other development-assistance agencies to use more grants instead of loans to help the world's poorest nations. - (Reuters)