Millennium Challenge Account and Liberia

QUESTION: Mr. Powell, the vote today choosing between the Millennium Challenge Account and money for AIDS for Africa, many of the African-American lawmakers in the House feel that the Millennium Challenge Account won't really go to Africa, and the administration has been very vague about how much money because you have a sort of standardized testing for poor countries.

How much of that money will go to Africa, and can you name any country that you think -- any three or four countries in Africa that will benefit from that program?

SECRETARY POWELL: I think the money is not for an African program. The Millennium Challenge Account is for developing nations who have made a firm commitment to democracy, the rule of law, ending of corruption and dignity of the individual.

We want to help those nations develop their infrastructure so that they can then attract the trade that they really need. And so we will have standards and criteria, and it would not be appropriate for me to tell you which countries will meet that criteria right now, but it is a program that I think is deserving of the support of the Congress, and it should not be seen just as an African program although many of the nations in Africa will meet the criteria required for participation in the Millennium Challenge Account. But it is not my position to designate them now. That will be the responsibility of the corporation that's being formed to administer the program.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, what would be your recommendation to the President regarding Liberia?

SECRETARY POWELL: The President and all of us in the administration are monitoring the situation in Liberia very carefully. It's a very serious matter.

In the first instance, ECOWAS has committed itself to put in peacekeepers as a vanguard force going in, and the President has said that we will support that effort and see what else might be appropriate for us to do. And I'm in very close touch with the United Nations Secretary General. Kofi Annan and I spoke just about an hour and a half ago and we have representatives of the State Department and the Defense Department in Dakkar, Senegal this morning meeting with ECOWAS political and military leaders to determine how quickly they will be able to put forces in, and what support would be required from the United States.