ACCRA, Ghana — Traveling across Africa this week, President Bush has been a little like Santa Claus, a benevolent figure from another land handing out gifts — American foreign aid — and generating smiles wherever he goes.
But here in the capital of Ghana on Wednesday, the smiles stopped for a moment as Bush confronted skepticism about American military policy and his AIDS initiative.
Bush used a news conference to address the widespread suspicion that the United States planned to establish military bases in Africa as it expanded its strategic role on the continent. And for the first time, he suggested that he might consider dropping a requirement that one-third of AIDS prevention dollars be spent on abstinence programs — but only if he was convinced that the approach was not working.
"I know there's rumors in Ghana, 'All Bush is coming to do is to try to convince you to put a big military base here,"' Bush said at a news conference with the country's president, John Kufuor. "That's baloney. As they say in Texas, that's bull."
The suspicion grows out of the administration's plan to establish Africom, a command headquarters that the Pentagon says would involve only operational and planning offices to help train African troops. Even so, there is concern in countries like Ghana, where memories of colonial rule are still fresh, that the United States wants to use the command as the first step toward putting American troops on the continent, possibly in a move to gain access to African oil or to counter the growing influence of China.
Only Liberia, which Bush intends to visit today, has expressed interest in playing host to the Africom headquarters. But the Pentagon says that for now, the headquarters will remain in Stuttgart, Germany.
Still, Bush said: "That doesn't mean we won't develop some kind of office here in Africa. We haven't made our minds up."
Also Wednesday, for the first time on the trip, Bush faced tough questioning from an African reporter about his administration's requirement that one-third of the AIDS initiative's prevention funds be spent on programs promoting abstinence.
The independent Institute of Medicine has said the abstinence requirement is hindering prevention efforts. Democrats in Congress, debating reauthorization of the initiative, want it dropped.
Bush's questioner on Wednesday told the president that the requirement was not realistic, because "multiple sexual relationships or partner relationships is the reality" in African societies, "though it's not spoken of in public."
As he has in the past, Bush defended the requirement, but he then went a step further.
"I monitor the results," he said. "And if it looks like it's not working, then we'll change. But thus far I can report, at least to our citizens, that the program has been unbelievably effective. And we're going to stay at it."