UK and France join forces for African mission

Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, and his French counterpart Hubert Vedrine are to make an unprecedented joint visit to the Great Lakes regions of Africa this month.

During the visit to Uganda, Congo and possibly Rwanda, the two ministers will aim to make inroads into conflicts which have dogged the continent for the best part of a decade. But the planned visit represents a risk: the French and British have been at odds over policy towards central Africa in the past.

The two foreign secretaries are likely to meet the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, and the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, two key figures in the conflict in Congo.

Tony Blair has promised to make Africa a priority in his second term. In his conference speech in October, he said: "The state of Africa is a scar on the conscience of the world. But if the world as a community focused on it, we could heal it. And if we don't, it will become deeper and angrier."

In practice, with his attention focused so heavily on central Asia, and Afghanistan in particular, Mr Blair has been unable to spend much time personally on Africa. Some African diplomats have questioned his commitment.

Mr Blair has persuaded the G8 to make Africa a priority, however, although the test will not come until this year when the world's richest nations will be asked to stump up some money for an Africa action plan at the next G8 summit in Canada.

The Straw-Vedrine visit to the Great Lakes will be the first tangible sign that the west has not forgotten Africa in its scramble to defeat Osama bin Laden.

In his conference speech Mr Blair highlighted Congo, one of the countries likely to be visited, arguing it should be possible to solve long-running conflicts. The three-year war has claimed as many as 2.5m lives. The UN has asserted the war has been prolonged by neighbouring states to plunder gold, diamonds, timber and the mineral coltan.

Zimbabwe has been allied with the Congo government, while Rwanda and Uganda back rebels.

In a recent sign of tensions between Britain and France over policy in Africa, Mr Vedrine has queried British military involvement in Sierra Leone, saying it ran against France's new policy of non-military interventions in Africa.

The French have also been at loggerheads with the British over renewing EU development aid to Congo. The aid was stopped in 1992. Both Chris Patten, the EU commissioner for external affairs, and Poul Nielson. the EU aid commissioner, sought to postpone the reopening of aid pending clearer signs of a reopening of political dialogue.

The French president, Jacques Chirac, supported by the Belgians, the former colonial power, argued the war had been winding down, with Rwanda and Uganda withdrawing support for the military factions.

Mr Blair is hoping that the British and the French will come together to put forward initiatives to tackle emergency conflicts in Africa before they develop.

Britain and France agreed the joint cooperation at the St Malo summit in 1998. Subsequently, Mr Vedrine and the then British foreign secretary, Robin Cook, jointly visited Ivory Coast for a meeting of British and French ambassadors working in Africa.

But this is the first time the two countries have intervened jointly in live conflicts.