Africa should solve its own conflicts and stop relying on outside military aid, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made clear on her trip taking in the three sub-Saharan giants of Kenya, Angola and Nigeria.

Merkel could well be speaking for European leaders in general, when she says that Germany has little enthusiasm for deploying troops to the continent in the future - weary as the general population is of the 10-year engagement in Afghanistan.

The chancellor wound up her trip on Thursday with a meeting with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.

After meeting Merkel, Jonathan paid tribute to Germany's "key role" in Nigerian development, adding that several statements of intent were under discussion and that progress on them was unacceptably slow. "That should change," he said.

The new president is highly regarded but only recently in office. He heads a country that faces constant tension between the Christian south and Muslim north and in which, despite its oil riches, half the population is impoverished.

After being appointed caretaker president last year, Jonathan came out winner in the April general elections. They were widely seen as the fairest and most democratic in the country's history since independence in 1960, despite the death of several hundred people in attacks on polling stations and candidates.

Merkel praised Nigeria's willingness to involve its troops in solving conflicts in Africa. The continent should rely on its own forces as much as possible, the chancellor stressed both in Nigeria and Angola.

"African conflict prevention and resolution will relieve United Nations peacekeeping in future," the chancellor said.

Merkel's trip was partly overshadowed in the German media by arms deliveries to Angola. The West African state, whose oil resources lie largely offshore, is to receive six German patrol boats.

Angolan President Jose dos Santos aims to modernize the country's entire army. That project offers potentially lucrative contracts to German arms producers, but is also certain to draw criticism from opposition parties, some of which have already accused the government of selling military equipment to a poor and unstable country.

German reluctance to become embroiled in foreign conflicts was plainly demonstrated in March when Berlin abstained on a United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing a no-fly zone over Libya in a move seen as damaging relations with its Western allies.

Recent revelations regarding the planned sale of 200 battle tanks to Saudi Arabia have also generated a storm in Germany.

By Staff reporter and agencies