Bush meets Italy peace grp, pledges African aid

Rome, June 10: ''We believe that war is the mother of all poverty''.

That is the mantra US President George W Bush heard today fromAndrea Riccardi, founder of a peace group that has been nominatedseveral times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Bush met for about an hour at the US embassy with members of theSant'Egidio religious community, a group of lay volunteers who workwith the poor in some 70 countries.

The group, which is opposed to the US-led war in Iraq, weresurprised when they were told Bush wanted to meet them during his visitto Rome.

Participants at the meeting, part of which was closed to themedia, said Bush was very interested in their work and sought theiropinion on whether U.S. aid money went to the people it was intendedfor.

''We told him we think that funds for aid should be more readilyavailable to organisations like ours, to be able to get money with lessbureaucracy,'' the group's president, Marco Impagliazzo, told a newsconference afterwards.

Bush thanked the members of the group for being members of what hecalled ''the international army of compassion'', adding: ''I'm proud ofyour organisation and I thank all members of your organisation forbeing such loving souls.'' The group did not discuss Iraq with Bushexcept to mention the problems of minority Christians. Nor did theybring up their total opposition to capital punishment, which Bushsupports.

The president told them he was committed to increasing US fundsfor AIDS in Africa, where Sant'Egidio runs successful programmes todistribute medication which blocks pregnant women who are HIV positivefrom transmitting the virus to newborns.

Bush had been due to attend a round-table discussion at thegroup's headquarters in the Trastevere neighbourhood, made up ofnarrow, winding alleys. But it was moved to the embassy for securityreasons.

The Sant'Egidio community is involved in myriad social activities.Besides AIDS prevention programmes in Africa, they run soup kitchensand shelters for the homeless and promote Christian-Muslim dialogue.

The group achieved international recognition in 1992 when theybrokered an accord between the Mozambique government and Frelimoguerrillas, ending a 16-year civil war.

They earned the nickname ''the UN of Trastevere'' after succeeding where others had failed.

Impagliazzo said he reminded Bush that in the early 1990s ''wewere the negotiators and you (the United States) were the observers (atthe Mozambique peace talks)''.

He said Bush laughed.

Reuters>