FACTBOX: Where Bush is and isn't going in Africa

(Reuters) - President George W. Bush travels to Africa on Friday to highlight efforts to boost development and fight AIDS and other diseases.

Below are snapshots of the countries that he will visit and some of the major ones that he will not.

WHERE BUSH WILL BE GOING:

BENIN

- Bush's first stop is Benin, which has a reputation as one of the continent's most stable democracies.

- The former French colony in west Africa, home of the Voodoo religion, has made efforts to liberalize its economy, but remains one of the world's poorest countries.

- Benin depends on cotton for up to 40 percent of exports and has campaigned against U.S. cotton industry subsidies.

TANZANIA

- Tanzania, in east Africa, is another stable country and where Bush will spend the longest stretch of his visit.

- Tanzania has wooed investors in tourism and mining, but remains desperately poor and in need of foreign aid.

- The U.S. embassy in Tanzania was targeted in a 1998 bomb attack linked to al Qaeda at the same time as an even deadlier one in neighboring Kenya.

- President Jakaya Kikwete was elected in 2005 and last month won the rotating chairmanship of the African Union.

RWANDA

- Rwanda is still rebuilding after the genocide of 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderates from the Hutu majority in 1994.

- President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, came to power as a rebel leader during the killings. He won a 2003 presidential election.

- He has long favored ties with Washington and has had sour relations with France, which backed the former regime.

- Rwanda was enmeshed in the 1998-2003 conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

GHANA

- Ghana is held up as a symbol of democracy in west Africa and enjoys foreign investor interest in its growing economy.

- The first African country to win independence in 1957, Ghana suffered repeated coups until multiparty democracy was restored in the 1990s.

- President John Kufuor is a former opposition leader who won a 2000 election. He is due to step down after this year's vote.

- Ghana has well preserved forts dating from the slave trade and is a magnet for African Americans seeking their roots.

- Ghana is the world's No.2 cocoa grower and second biggest gold producer in Africa after South Africa.

LIBERIA

- Liberia is recovering from a 14-year civil war that left 200,000 dead.

- It was founded by freed American slaves in 1847 and has strong historic links with the United States -- its Lone Star flag is modeled on the Stars and Stripes.

- President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first woman head of state, was elected in 2005.

- Liberia, home to a big CIA base before the war, has shown willingness to host the headquarters for the controversial U.S. Africom military command.

WHERE BUSH WON'T BE GOING:

KENYA

- Kenya has east Africa's biggest economy and is an ally in the U.S. war on terror, but its reputation for stability and economic promise has been shattered by recent post-election ethnic violence that has killed at least 1,000.

- The opposition says President Mwai Kibaki cheated in the December 27 election, which he denies. International observes said the vote count was badly flawed. Mediation continues.

- Washington has warned at least eight Kenyans it could bar their entry on suspicion of stoking violence. It has called for an independent probe into the killings.

SOUTH AFRICA

- South Africa has the continent's biggest economy by far and is the main regional power, but might have been problematic on a tour partly dedicated to the fight against HIV/AIDS.

- President Thabo Mbeki has infuriated AIDS activists by questioning accepted science on HIV in a country where about 12 percent of the 47 million population have the virus.

- Mbeki's rival Jacob Zuma is expected to take the presidency in 2009 if he beats corruption charges.

- At a rape trial in which he was acquitted in 2006, Zuma justified having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman by saying he had taken a shower afterwards.

- South Africa has also not welcomed the idea of the U.S. Africom military command setting up in the region.

NIGERIA

- Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and a key U.S. trade partner. It is the key power in the Gulf of Guinea, increasingly important for global energy supplies.

- But Nigeria, like South Africa, has not been in favor of basing Africom in the region.

- Nigeria's democratic credentials are also under a cloud after elections last year that were marred by widespread fraud and described by some international observers as "not credible".