Clinton honours victims of Nairobi US embassy bombing

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday laid flowers on the site of the bombings against the US embassy in Nairobi that killed 213 people in 1998.

Clinton, who kicked off a seven-nation, 11-day tour of Africa in Nairobi two days earlier, took part in a wreath-laying ceremony where she renewed her administration's commitment to combat extremism in the region and elsewhere.

"This is an opportunity to renew our resolve and to ensure that we do all that we can so that these attacks don't take more innoncent lives in the future," she said.

On August 7, 1998, suicide bombers targeted the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in one of the most devastating attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda elements prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks.

A total of 213 people, including 12 Americans and 34 local embassy staff, died in the Nairobi bombing. The United States has since moved its embassy out of the city centre.

"We also renew our commitment to peace and reconciliation to all who (renounce) the path of violence," Clinton said.

Later Thursday, Clinton is due to meet Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, an Islamist cleric who once fought Washington's Ethiopian allies before joining a UN-sponsored reconciliation process last year.

He is now struggling to fend off a devastating military offensive by hardline insurgents groups, including the Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab movement, which experts fear could turn Somalia into a global haven for extremists.

"Kenya will not be cowed, Kenya will remain committed, Kenya will remain on the front line, Kenya will remain unwavering and steadfast in the war on terror anywhere," Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said.

Besides Clinton and Wetangula, the Memorial Park ceremony was also attended by three members of the US Congress as well as surivors.