PRESIDENT BUSH said yesterday that he wanted to double US aid to Africa by 2010, focusing on the fight against malaria, education and violence against women.

The initiative is part of an overall plan to increase US spending on Africa from $3.4 billion (£1.9 billion) last year to nearly $7 billion by 2010, and is seen as a significant concession to Tony Blair before the G8 summit.

Mr Bush emphasised that the resources would be committed only to countries that deserved to receive them, a point he had made the day before in an exclusive Oval Office interview with The Times. The leaders of those countries must tackle corruption and spend the money wisely. They could not be “passive recipients” of cash.

Although Mr Bush has rejected Mr Blair’s call to double global aid to Africa to $50 billion dollars, yesterday’s commitment will boost Mr Blair’s call for international co-operation on Africa at the Gleneagles summit, where he begins his term as president of the G8. “There is progress being made. There is real momentum on Africa,” a Downing Street spokesman said.

Mr Bush, in a Washington speech, said he would ask Congress to spend $1.2 billion from now until 2008 to help to fight malaria, which claims 1.2 million lives a year, 95 per cent of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

“We know that large scale action can defeat this disease in whole regions and the world must take action,” he said. “Together we can lift this threat and defeat this fear across the African continent.”

He added that next year the US would take action in three countries, Tanzania, Uganda and Angola, to provide malaria assistance, extending the effort “to at least four more African countries in 2007 and at least five more in 2008”.

He also proposed doubling US spending to $400 million on initiatives to promote the education of girls in Africa. He said he also wanted Congress to approve $55 million over three years to improve legal protection for women against violence and sexual abuse.

The proposals, with $674 million in emergency famine relief announced during Mr Blair’s Washington visit this month, allows Mr Bush to blunt criticism that he has rejected the latter’s request to double aid overall to Africa.

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