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International News Updates |
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18 May 2009 US President Barack Obama is to make
a week-long foreign tour in July that will include
Russia, Italy and Ghana, the White House says.
Mr Obama will be in Moscow on 6-8 July for talks
that are expected to cover efforts to reduce nuclear
stockpiles and non-proliferation.
From Russia he will head to the Group of Eight summit
in Italy.
He will then travel to the Ghanaian capital, Accra, on
his first trip as president to sub-Saharan Africa.
There had been speculation that Mr Obama's first
presidential trip to the continent might be to Kenya,
home to the president's late father.
The White House said the visit to Russia would provide
the chance to deepen engagement on issues including
missile defence and security challenges.
'Promoting development'
Mr Obama and his Russian counterpart Dimitry Medvedev
had a good first meeting in Europe last month,
agreeing to work together to reduce their country's
nuclear arsenal, the BBC's Kim Ghattas reports from
Washington.
But a recent thaw has been complicated by a spy
scandal at the Nato headquarters and Nato military
exercises in Georgia, she adds.
The G8 summit for the world's leading industrialised
nations will take place in the central Italian town of
L'Aquila, which was struck by a major earthquake in
April.
Mr Obama is due to chair a meeting on energy and
climate change at the summit, which runs from 10-12
July.
In Ghana, the White House said Mr Obama and his wife
looked forward "to strengthening the US relationship
with one of our most trusted partners in sub-Saharan
Africa".
During the visit Mr Obama hopes to highlight the
"critical role that sound governance and civil society
play in promoting lasting development", the White
House said.
Correspondents say that Mr Obama, preoccupied with
foreign policy challenges elsewhere in the world, has
not yet articulated a detailed policy for Africa.
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