SOUTH AFRICA: President Thabo Mbeki pledged yesterday to speed up measures aimed at improving the lives of South Africa's black majority.
But in his annual state-of-the-nation address to parliament, he offered no new policies to deal with AIDS and Zimbabwe.
He said recent economic progress made South Africa the envy of the world, with the challenge now to bring benefits to all.
"We have a dual economy and society. The one is modern and relatively well developed. The other is characterised by underdevelopment and an entrenched crisis of poverty," he said.
"We have to respond to the needs of fellow South Africans trapped in the latter society in a focused and dedicated manner to extricate them from their condition."
Mr Mbeki said his government would improve public services and infrastructure, strive to cut unemployment, currently at 30 per cent, and pass laws this year to guide efforts to give blacks a greater stake in the white-dominated economy.
On foreign affairs, Mr Mbeki repeated his strong opposition to a possible US-led attack on Iraq, saying that such a conflict would be a disaster for the developing world.
He said a team of experts who led South Africa's programme to destroy its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons from the apartheid era would travel to Iraq to share their knowledge.
But he defied critics who have demanded a tougher line on President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, where an economic crisis has led to a harsh political crackdown on South Africa's doorstep.
"We will continue to work with the people of Zimbabwe as they seek solutions to the problems," he said.