President Bush is in Botswana on the third stop of his five-nation tour of Africa. Mr. Bush will discuss efforts to fight AIDS and increase trade between the United States and southern Africa.
President Bush got a rousing welcome at Botswana's airport, with local dance groups and schoolchildren waving U.S. and Botswanan flags.
Mr. Bush and his host, President Festus Mogae, then met for talks on fighting terrorism, increasing trade and restoring democracy in neighboring Zimbabwe.
They also discussed efforts to fight AIDS in a country where nearly 40 percent of the adult population is HIV positive. With one of the world's highest infection rates, Botswana is a major target for the president's 15-billion-dollar program to fight AIDS.
It is also the site of the first comprehensive AIDS prevention and treatment program in Africa, in a public-private partnership involving the government, the pharmaceutical firm Merck, and the computer software magnate Bill Gates.
President Bush will visit a U.S.-sponsored trade center, opened last year to boost economic investments between the countries; and he will tour the Mokolodi Nature Reserve, which is home to orphaned elephant and nine endangered white rhino.
