New World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz told Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo he hoped Africa’s biggest debtor would see progress in its quest for debt relief at a meeting of the Paris Club on Monday.

Wolfowitz, on his first African tour in his new role, met Obasanjo in the Nigerian capital against a backdrop of intense negotiations over a relief package to eliminate part of the $31 billion Nigeria owes to Paris Club creditors.

“I am hopeful that we will see results in this regard at the Paris negotiations which resume today,” Wolfowitz told Obasanjo, according to a statement from the Nigerian president’s office.

As the world’s eight-biggest oil exporter, Nigeria does not qualify for a debt write-off that the Group of Eight top industrial nations (G8) granted to 18 heavily indebted poor countries on Saturday.

Africa’s most populous nation with 140 million inhabitants, Nigeria is critical to any effort to improve the continent’s lot. Wolfowitz made it his first stop in a tour that will also take him to Rwanda, Burkina Faso and South Africa.

Nigeria has been pressing for a precedent-setting debt buyback scheme that would see it use a windfall from above-budget oil receipts to pay back its Paris Club debt at a 70 percent discount.

Wolfowitz told Obasanjo the G8 finance ministers had praised the Nigerian leader’s economic reforms, which are one of the key arguments in the country’s lobbying for debt relief.

“In their private discussions, they (G8 ministers) spoke very positively about what you have started here,” Wolfowitz was quoted as saying in the statement from Obasanjo’s office.

While the reforms have won praise from international bodies, many Nigerians criticise the government for failing to improve crumbling hospitals, schools, roads and electricity lines in the six years since the return to civilian rule.

Obasanjo has also launched a high-profile campaign against corruption which has claimed the jobs of a handful of senior government figures, though no major power broker has been successfully prosecuted.

Nigeria is the world’s third most corrupt country, according to watchdog Transparency International’s perceptions index.

Earlier, the former U.S. deputy defence secretary reiterated helping Africa was at the top of his agenda in his new job.

“My first priority is to try and help Africa succeed but at the same time Africa also has to make the effort,” he told reporters during a visit to the northern state of Bauchi.

The emir of Bauchi, Suleiman Adamu, honoured Wolfowitz with the title of “Dokajin,” or “person who maintains order.”

Lesley Wroughton, Reuters, June 13, 2005