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　　WHITE HOUSE— President Barack Obama’seffort to engage Africa brought together thelargest summit of African leaders ever held inWashington. But China has hosted suchsummits before, and the U.S. gatheringhighlights what some see as a belated U.S.effort to catch up and expand its economic ties with Africa.

　　The might of large American corporations like Coca Cola is powering the Obamaadministration’s latest efforts to build its partnership with Africa.

　　The company at the summit announced it’s boosting its investment by $5 billion in safe waterand other programs.

　　China, too, has invested heavily -- doing twice as much trade with Africa as the U.S. But Beijinghas been accused of ignoring governance and human rights issues.

　　Corporate investment

　　Obama announced $14 billion of American corporate investment at the Africa summit, butindicated the United States will have a different approach.

　　“Capital is one thing. Development programs and projects are one thing. But, but rule of law?Regulatory reform? Good governance? Those things matter even more, because people shouldbe able to start a business and ship their goods without having to pay a bribe or hiresomebody’s cousin.”

　　This was a big summit, but Beijing started hosting equally large numbers of African leaders 14years ago.

　　U.S. officials say there is no competition with China for Africa.

　　Human rights, governance

　　Analyst Richard Downie agrees. "I think at heart, the U.S. and China have mutual interests inAfrica. They’re both interested in peace, stability and security because that’s the bestenvironment in which to grow markets and do business."

　　He said the U.S. seeks a new kind of engagement.

　　“The U.S. has traditionally focused very much on development issues, on tackling some of thebig public health crises in Africa, such as HIV/AIDS and trying to resolve some of the mostpersistent conflicts," said Downie. " So it’s really focused on the downsides, the problems ofAfrica rather than the upside, the economic opportunities that China is focused on.”

　　This summit focused on the upside, with economic issues taking center stage. There were nosessions devoted to rule of law and justice. White House officials said leaders had a chance totalk about those issues on the sidelines.