The White House said Wednesday Bush would meet the presidents of Botswana, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia and Niger on June 13 to "highlight the value that the U.S. places on supporting democracy across Africa."
Spokesman Scott McClellan said the president "looks forward to recognizing these countries' successes at holding free and fair elections." Bush also plans to discuss issues such as democracy, trade and economic development, HIV/AIDS and peace and security.
The announcement came a day after Bush and visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair said they were close to agreement on a plan for the G8 group of industrialized countries to cancel up to 100 percent of multilateral debt owed by poor African nations.
Bush also said the U.S. would provide an additional $674 million in assistance for humanitarian emergencies, $414 of which would provide immediate help to avert looming famine in the Horn of Africa countries of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.
In a joint press conference with Blair he made it clear that American assistance was contingent on democratic and economic reform and accountability on the part of African governments.
"We have got a fantastic opportunity - presuming that the countries in Africa make the right decisions," Bush said.
"Nobody wants to give money to a country that's corrupt, where leaders take money and put it in their pocket. No developed nation is going to want to support a government that doesn't take an interest in her people, that doesn't focus on education and health care.
"We're really not interested in supporting a government that doesn't have open economies and open markets."
Blair agreed, calling aid a "two-way commitment."
"We require the African leadership also to be prepared to make the commitment on governance, against corruption, in favor of democracy, in favor of the rule of law.
"African nations that were prepared to make such a commitment today were going to get help. What we're not going to do is waste our countries' money."
Britain hosts a G8 summit in Scotland on July 6-8. Blair hopes to secure agreements on debt relief and a doubling of aid. G8 finance ministers are meeting in London this week to lay the groundwork, although Washington already has turned down the aid-doubling proposal.
The question of debt is a huge one for sub-Saharan Africa, home to some of the world's poorest nations, where millions of people die each year from hunger, war and disease.
Countries in the region owe billion of dollars in external debt - exactly how much depends on how it's calculated, but figures vary between $70 billion and $300 billion. Much of the debt is owed to multilateral agencies like the IMF, and servicing it alone pulls billions of dollars each year away from pressing health and education needs.
"It is patently unfair for democratic [African] governments to be saddled with the debts of previous despotic regimes, especially when loans have given no benefit to the people," American Enterprise Institute (AEI) scholar Roger Bate wrote this week.
"But there is absolutely no good reason to write off loans to a government that has simply wasted funds, or bought arms with money destined for health and education projects," he added. "Doing so simply condones bad behavior."
It remains unclear which countries would benefit from debt relief if a G8 agreement is reached, but Bush indicated that beneficiaries would be "highly indebted," with the other criterion being that they were "on the path to reform."
Wide differences exist on which countries should be helped. A spokesman for Blair said Wednesday about 25 of the poorest countries could benefit from the relief, but G8 members Germany, France and Japan have separately proposed that relief should apply to just five countries - Mauritania, Mali, Ethiopia, Niger and Guyana.
Activist groups want a lot more countries to benefit.
"A new deal must be agreed for 100 percent debt cancellation for at least 50 impoverished nations in Africa and elsewhere," Washington-based Africa Action said in a statement, while Jubilee USA Network called on the U.S. and Britain "to ensure their proposal includes all impoverished countries."
Africa Action and Jubilee both also said debt cancellation should have no "harmful economic conditions" attached.
The G8 nations are the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada and Russia.
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