Obama out to woo African leaders at Washington summit

President Barack Obama is rolling out his country's most ambitious courtship of Africa in a bid to revive declining American economic influence on a continent where US spending power is overshadowed by China.

The US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington this week is expected to host more than 40 African heads of state. The agenda includes US-Africa business as well as peace and stability in the region.

"This is the first time a US president has convened that many African leaders," said Charles Stith, the director of the African Presidential Archives and Research Centre at Boston University, and a former US ambassador to Tanzania.

The summit shows Obama wants to catch up with China on the continent, said He Wenping, the director of the Africa Research Office at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of West Asian and African Studies. "The US is likely to increase investment in Africa's energy and infrastructure sector, which will compete with China," she said.

In July 2012, then president Hu Jintao offered US$20 billion in loans to African countries over three years, double the amount Beijing pledged for the previous three years. The latest package is nearly triple the US$7 billion Obama pledged last year as part of his Power Africa initiative to double electricity supply in the continent by 2030.

"The Chinese have set the bar pretty high in engagement in Africa. Given the current tension between the White House and Congress, it's unlikely Obama can come up with anything close to these numbers in financing for Africa," Stith said.

China overtook the US as Africa's biggest trading partner in 2009. The US is now behind the European Union and China as the top trade partners.