$73 million in US aid for Zimbabwe
US President Barack Obama announced $US73 million ($89.7 million) in aid for poverty-stricken Zimbabwe after meeting with the long-time opposition leader and now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
"I have committed $73 million in assistance to Zimbabwe," President Obama said after the White House meeting.
The aid, he cautioned, "will not be going to the government directly because we continue to be concerned about consolidating democracy, human rights and rule of law, but it will be going directly to the people in Zimbabwe."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said this week US support for Zimbabwe had to be appropriate as Washington seeks to bolster reform rather than corruption in a tense unity government shared by long-time opposition leader Mr Tsvangirai and the internationally-reviled President Robert Mugabe.
President Obama, standing alongside Mr Tsvangirai, expressed his "extraordinary admiration for the courage, the tenacity that the prime minister has shown in navigating through some very difficult political times" in the southern African nation.
The country, which President Obama noted used to be the "breadbasket of Africa," has gone through a "very dark and difficult period politically."
The power sharing coalition in place since February, he added, shows promise and the US wants to do everything it can "to encourage the kinds of improvement, not only on human rights and rule of law, freedom of the press, and democracy that is so necessary, but also on the economic front."
Mr Tsvangirai is on an international tour looking for assistance as his country seeks to emerge from years of economic chaos, which has seen rampant inflation and forced many Zimbabweans to flee the country.
The prime minister's welcome abroad contrasts with the international chill towards Mr Mugabe. Both the European Union and the US maintain a travel ban and asset freeze on Mr Mugabe, his wife and inner circle in protest at controversial elections and alleged human rights abuses by his government.