WRAP US Pres arrives at next stop on tour of African nations ADDS presser

(21 Feb 2008) SHOTLIST
1. Wide of helicopter arriving carrying US President George W. Bush
2. Mid of Bush getting out of helicopter with wife, Laura, and greeting Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
3. Bush meeting Liberian officials
4. Sirleaf and Bush walking past troops to platform
5. Various of Sirleaf and Bush as national anthems are played
6. Bush and Sirleaf walking along red carpet
7. Pan left of band playing
8. Bush greeting Liberian officials
9. Bush's motorcade driving away
10. Tracking shot showing residents lining roads, cheering and waving
11. Pull out to wide of Bush signing visitors book at podium, Laura Bush standing alongside
12. Mid of Sirleaf and officials standing to one side
13. SOUNDBITE (English): George W. Bush, US President:
"I want the people of Liberia to know that the president of the United States stands with you. We want to help you recover from a terrible period. We want you to build lives of hope and peace and under your leadership, that's exactly what's happening. It was my honour to have presented you with the national Medal of Freedom, it's the highest civilian award a president can give and I did so because of your courage and your leadership and we are so excited to be with you."
14. Various of Bush and Sirleaf, seated and shaking hands for photo op
STORYLINE
President George W. Bush said on Thursday that the United States is committed to helping restore lives of "hope and peace" to Liberia, a poor African nation that ties its founding and its renewed freedom to America.
Bush landed in Monrovia, the capital city named after former US President James Monroe, and took a helicopter into the city from the airport.
He then attended a welcoming ceremony and met Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman ever elected president in Africa.
"I want the people of Liberia to know that the president of the United States stands with you. We want to help you recover from a terrible period," Bush told Sirleaf.
Sirleaf, a Harvard-educated economist who once fled her own country for survival, won office in 2005.
US First Lady Laura Bush attended her inauguration in Liberia, and Bush has since given her the highest civil honour he can bestow, the Medal of Freedom.
No leader on the continent has warmer relations with the American president.
This nation, founded by freed American slaves and ruined by a 14-year civil war that ended in 2003, is trying to revive itself under a democratic government.
Liberia is a very poor country and the US government is pumping in money for education, security, construction and disease prevention.
Direct US aid has totalled more than 750 (m) million US dollars since the war ended.
Though peaceful now, the prevalence of weapons in Liberia coupled with its other problems made this, his last stop in Africa, the most nerve-racking for the president's security detail.
Blue-helmeted United Nations peacekeepers with guns and riot-guard shields patrolled ahead of Bush's arrival.
Bush will meet privately with Sirleaf, visit a training centre for Liberia's armed forces, and hold an education event before flying back to Washington.
He has also spent time in Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana in a trip focused on health and economic aid.

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