1.
SV exterior headquarters of Entente Council
0.05

2.
CU main gate
0.06

3.
SV interior PAN meeting in session
0.14

4.
SV Togo representative
0.18

5.
MV President of Entente council
0.22

6.
Mid-shot PAN Dahomey and Ivorian representatives
0.29

7.
SV's Root speaking
0.30

8.
SV Ivory Coast and Dahomey reps. signing agreement PAN to Root and President of Entente signing.
0.48

9.
SV President and Root signing.
0.53

10.
CU's Root and President signing.
1.05

11.
SV Togo representative signing
1.09

12.
MV Ivorian and Dahomey representative signing
1.12

13.
SV delegates seated round table.
1.20



Initials PS/14.26 PS/16.03



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Under an agreement signed in Abidjan on Wednesday, the United States will loan the five African states of the Conseil de L'Entente six million dollars (about 2.5 million Sterling).

The loan is repayable with minimum interest, over forty years.

This is the first time the United States has allocated a loan to a regional organisation in Africa. The Conseil de L'Entente in a political and economic association of four states which were formerly part of French West Africa, and Togo, which joined in June 1966. The entente was founded in May 1959.

SYNOPSIS: At the headquarters of the Conseil de L'Entente on Wednesday, representatives of the five states of the Lest African grouping met to finalise the details of a loan from the United States which will give the Entente six million dollars, that's about 2.5 million Sterling, to be sunk in the industrialisation of the community's meat industry.

Addressing delegates before the signing of the agreement, U.S. ambassador in the Ivory Coast Mr. S.E. Root told the delegates from the Entente countries that this was the first American loan to be allocated to an African regional organisation. The conseil de L'Entente is a political and economic association of four states which were formerly part of French West Africa, and Togo, which joined in 1966.

Ambassador Root said the improvement of the market and of meat production in particular was of the highest importance for all member states in the community.

He felt sure, that this aid programme would fit in perfectly with the individual plans of the countries, and it would achieve much that was impossible under a purely national plan. This, he said, was real regionalism in action.