US closely watching China in Africa: official

US intelligence agencies are keeping close tabs on China's expanding influence in Africa, especially in oil-producing countries like Nigeria, a top US official said Tuesday.

"We are doing so, and we will continue to," US intelligence director Dennis Blair told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Republican Senator James Inhofe had asked Blair to address "the problem of China" and its influence in Africa, saying that "anything that is new and shiny was given to them by China everywhere you go."

"China has not been our friend in Somalia or in Sudan," said Inhofe. "I would just hope that our intelligence community can be watching very carefully the activities of China on the continent of Africa."

Source: AFP, Mar 10, 2009