US: President George W. Bush has told black leaders that he wants to change the relationship between the Republican Party and the African-American community and to work together to combat such blights as HIV and poor education.
Addressing the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) for the first time since becoming president, Mr Bush acknowledged his party's difficult relationship with African-Americans.
"I understand that many African-Americans distrust my political party. I consider it a tragedy that the party of Abraham Lincoln let go of its historic ties with the African-American community. For too long my party wrote off the African-American vote, and many African-Americans wrote off the Republican Party," he said.
Delegates gave a chilly reception to a speech many saw as a last-minute attempt to improve Republican support among African-Americans in advance of November's congressional elections.
Mr Bush won just 11 per cent of the black vote in 2004, and 9 per cent in 2000.
Until this week, he was the first US president since Herbert Hoover to refuse to address the NAACP, America's most important black political organisation.
Mr Bush promised to help people displaced by Hurricane Katrina, most of whom are black, to step up efforts to fight HIV, which disproportionately affects blacks, and to improve home and business ownership opportunities for African-Americans.
"Ownership is vital to making sure this country extends its hope to every neighbourhood. Most of your forefathers didn't come seeking opportunity - they came in chains as the property of other people. Today, their children and grandchildren now have an opportunity to own their own property," he said.
Although the audience applauded a number of times during the speech, Mr Bush was heckled when he referred to his visit this month to the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where the Rev Martin Luther King jr was murdered.
"It was a powerful reminder of hardships this nation has been through in a struggle for decency," Mr Bush said of his visit.
"You guys killed him - you better say that," a woman shouted from the audience.
Shortly after Mr Bush's address, the Senate voted 98-0 to renew for 25 years the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting discrimination based on race and gives the justice department authority to review changes in election procedures in some states, mostly in the south.
