Bush looked forward “to discussing their common concern for global security, conflict resolution in Africa, economic development, trade and investment, and fighting HIV/Aids in Africa”, White House spokesperson Scott McClellan said.

Mbeki’s spokesperson, Bheki Khumalo, confirmed the visit on Thursday. But he and other South African officials stressed that Mbeki’s main concern would be to discuss the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, to be hosted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair has promised to make Africa one of the key concerns of the summit, the other being climate change.

So a major focus of the summit should be the Commission for Africa which Blair appointed and which recently published ambitious recommendations for increased aid from the G8 countries to Africa. These included a doubling and later possibly tripling of development finance, large debt relief and substantially increased access for African exports to G8 markets.

These recommendations would implement much of the G8 Africa Action Plan the G8 leaders adopted at their 2002 summit in Kannanaskis, Canada, but which has only partly been implemented. Serious differences have emerged among the G8 countries over the Blair Commission’s recommendations, especially its proposed international financing facility.

The US has made it clear it cannot support this facility and is lukewarm about other recommendations of the commission. Japan, Germany and Italy are also opposed to much of the plan.

Khumalo said that Mbeki would urge Bush to try to ensure that Gleneagles was “not just a talk shop, but emerges with a clear action plan to take the Kannanaskis Africa Action Plan forward. Mbeki himself has said he is concerned that the G8 governments should overcome their disagreements before the Gleneagles summit so it did not become a debating forum but a meeting to agree on practical steps to implement the G8 Africa Action Plan and the recommendations of the Africa commission.