Bush seeks democratic, literacy reform

NEW YORK -- President Bush on Monday linked his push for democratic reform across the world with first lady Laura Bush's call for governments to embrace literacy programs to improve lives.\n"The simple act of teaching a child to read or an adult to read has the capacity to transform nations and yield the peace we all want," the president said at the White House Conference on Global Literacy being hosted in New York by Laura Bush. "You can't realize the blessings of liberty if you can't read a ballot."\nBush attended his wife's event, which was being held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly sessions this week. Later in the day, he had bilateral talks scheduled with several foreign leaders to kick off his attendance at the world body's annual meetings.\nLike Mrs. Bush, the president made the case that supporting effective literacy programs is a key to improving the economic prosperity of nations and their people.\n"You can't have prosperity unless people can read. It's just as simple as that," Bush said. "To be a productive worker, you have to be able to read the manual."\nBush came to the United Nations with a host of global issues facing his administration.\nThe president's three-day trip includes bilateral meetings with six foreign leaders, including the presidents of Iraq and the Palestinian Authority, and a speech to the U.N. General Assembly that will focus on his vision for the Middle East.\nThe days of diplomacy come as the president prepares for a busy political schedule. Bush, who lately has been trying to turn the election-year debate away from the unpopular war in Iraq and toward a broader war on terrorism, plans to spend much of the next seven weeks campaigning for fellow Republicans.\nAnd he isn't leaving politics behind while he's in New York: Monday night he headlines a fundraiser for the Republican National Committee at the Manhattan home of billionaire financier Henry Kravis.\nAt the United Nations, Bush will try to highlight his goal of spreading democracy. To that end, Bush was to spend his first day meeting with leaders of Malaysia, a democracy with a moderate Islamic government; El Salvador and Honduras, two Central American nations that have moved from military dictatorships to democracies; and the emerging African democracy of Tanzania.