NIGERIA: Heavily armed police blocked a group of demonstrators trying to enter the US embassy in the Nigerian capital Abuja yesterday in a protest against a planned visit by President Bush, witnesses said.
Police reinforcements were called to the embassy as protesters gathered with placards denouncing Mr Bush's scheduled visit next week as part of an African tour.
A spokeswoman for the group, the Concerned Youth Alliance of Nigeria, said Mr Bush's visit would amount to recognition of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose re-election in April she said was massively rigged.
"Police arrived in two trucks and quickly outnumbered the small group," a reporter said. "The police blocked the entrance, and an embassy official met the group outside and received their petition."
Despite the protests and a national strike over fuel price increases, Mr Bush said he would visit Nigeria.
"If I have to, I'll make my own bed at the hotel, but I'm going," Mr Bush told African journalists in an interview at the White House ahead of his five-day trip to Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria.
Meanwhile, a deal to end the general strike over fuel prices that threatened Nigerian oil exports looked more likely last night after the country's vice-president was put in charge of negotiations, the strike leader said. "The president appreciates that it is a political problem that needs a political solution," labour leader Mr Adams Oshiomhole told reporters as he emerged from a meeting with President Olusegun Obasanjo.
"He agreed with us and has asked the vice-president to head the government delegation to the talks," he said. "We are now close to the solution".
The president's intervention followed a threat by an oil union to halt Nigeria's oil production and exports from today.
Nigeria is the world's eighth biggest exporter.
The walkout, which entered its fourth day yesterday, has closed Nigeria's ports, banks, shops and petrol stations and is increasingly threatening the stability of Africa's most populous nation.