Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair left today for a five-day "farewell trip" to Africa which will take him to Libya, Sierra Leone and South Africa, his office said. According to the dpa, Blair, who is due to step down from office on June 27, is scheduled to meet Libyan President Moamer Gaddafi on his first stop. In 2004, Blair became the first British leader in 60 years to visit Libya. Afterwards Blair will travel to Sierra Leone, where he can expect a warm welcome due to Britain's deployment of troops in 2000, a move credited with hastening the end of a lengthy civil war in the West African state. During his two-day stay in South Africa on Thursday and Friday, Blair will hold talks with President Thabo Mbeki and deliver a major policy speech on Africa - a central theme of Blair's premiership in the last few years. A spokesman for Blair said all three countries illustrated, in different ways, the benefits of of Blair's "values-driven foreign policy engagement in Africa." -- SPA
