The Associated Press

GOREE ISLAND, Senegal -- President Bush called slavery "one of the greatest crimes of history" Tuesday and inched closer toward sending American troops to a peacekeeping force in Liberia.

Bush gave a wide-ranging speech on slavery and race in a visit to an Atlantic seaport where slaves once were packed onto ships and sent to America. It was his first day of a five-nation trip to Africa.

Meeting with regional leaders, Bush discussed whether to commit U.S. troops to a peacekeeping force in Liberia, founded by freed American slaves in 1822. "We're now in the process of determining the extent of our participation," Bush said. He said he had yet to make up his mind.

Aides said Bush's comments signaled there would be some involvement of U.S. forces, although the size and role of such a contingent remains an open question.

On Goree Island, Bush toured a centuries-old house that was used as a processing center for countless thousands of Africans who were herded aboard ships that took them into slavery in America.

"Human beings were delivered, sorted, weighed, branded with marks of commercial enterprises and loaded as cargo on a voyage without return," Bush said. "One of the largest migrations in history was also one of the greatest crimes of history."

Bush did not apologize for slavery but noted Americans throughout history "clearly saw this sin and called it by name."

"The spirit of Africans in America did not break," Bush said. "Yet the spirit of their captors was corrupted."

The president recited a litany of Africans and African Americans who made contributions to American society, from the arts to politics: abolitionist Frederick Douglass, slave-poet Phillis Wheatley and Martin Luther King Jr.

"The stolen sons and daughters of Africa helped to awaken the conscience of America," he said.

Despite painful shared history, Bush said the United States and African nations must work together to eradicate disease and war, and to encourage greater business ties.

"We know that these challenges can be overcome because history moves in the direction of justice," Bush said.

Bush stood with Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, who said African nations need help building their economies so they can overcome slavery's legacy.

"All Africans are asking for is infrastructure so Africans can work," he said, specifically requesting "heavy military equipment" to help with farming.

"By walking on this martyred island, part of the heritage of mankind will remain strongly in the hearts for long years to come in Senegal, in the United States," he said.

Bush, along with his wife and one of their twin daughters, Barbara, Secretary of State Colin Powell, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and the Wades, took a tour of the two-story stone slave house, painted a coral pink, on Goree Island.