Gabonese President Omar Bongo toured Russia's second city on Thursday and met with local leaders on the last day of his official visit to Russia.
Bongo laid flowers at the monument to the defenders of Leningrad, Saint Petersburg's Soviet-era name, during the World War II Nazi blockade and met with Governor Vladimir Yakovlev to discuss cooperation.
The visit is the first by the head of state of oil-rich Gabon since diplomatic relations were set up with Russia in 1973.
Bongo invited business leaders from Saint Petersburg to visit his west African state next month.
He then headed off for a tour of the State Hermitage Museum and Peter the Great's summer castle at Petrodvorets.
President Vladimir Putin agreed to promote military-technical cooperation and strengthen bilateral ties with Gabon at a meeting with Bongo in the Kremlin on Tuesday.
Bongo lamented Wednesday the waning of Russia's influence in Africa since the end of the Cold War.
During a meeting with parliamentary speaker Gennady Seleznyov, he said that the new situation allowed the United States to "play the policeman," Russian parliamentary sources said -- SAINT PETERSBURG (AFP)
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