Angola's president has said ties with former colonial
ruler Portugal are "not well", amid tensions over Lisbon's investigation
of Luanda officials.
Mr Jose Eduardo Dos Santos said "the current political climate" was not conducive to building a strategic relationship.
He said that Western nations fed the perception that "a rich African man is corrupt".
Portugal's Government has expressed "surprise" at the remarks.
It said it had been working hard to foster
relations, citing what it said were the "special ties that unite the two
peoples" and the strategic importance of good relations for both sides.
Kowtowing
Last week, Portugal's Foreign minister Rui Machete
was called before a parliamentary committee in Lisbon after he
expressed regret in an interview in Angola about a corruption probe by
Portuguese prosecutors that was said to involve top Angolan officials.
Some in Portugal saw his comments as kowtowing to Angola's growing power while infringing judicial independence.
Portuguese opposition parties called for Mr Machete to resign.
Angola's state-run Jornal de Angola newspaper then published a scathing editorial dismissing Portugal's elite as ignorant and corrupt.
Even so, observers in Lisbon were taken aback by President dos Santos's decision to join in the criticism, our reporter says.
The Angolan officials being investigated in Portugal have not been named.
But Angola's minister for External Relations,
Georges Chicotty, denied that President Dos Santos' comments were
directly linked to the legal probes in Portugal.
"We don't intervene in any Portuguese political issues," he told BBC Focus on Africa programme.
SOURCE: AFRICA REVIEW
SOURCE: AFRICA REVIEW
