Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed Angola to investigate human rights abuses, fight corruption and hold free, fair and “timely” presidential elections.

Angola’s prosperity depends on “good governance and strong democratic institutions,” Clinton said after meeting with Angolan Foreign Minister Assuncao Afonso dos Anjos in Luanda, Angola’s capital.

The foreign minister asked for more time for the presidential election, the country’s first since 1992. Angola, which gained independence from Portugal in 1975, held a parliamentary election last year.

The presidential vote, due this year, may be delayed until 2010 as the country works on a new constitution, Agence France- Presse reported July 15.

Clinton said the U.S. plans to expand trade and investment with Angola and is looking at ways to cooperate more closely with the Chinese on economic development in Africa.

China has extended more than $5 billion in credit to Angola, by the State Department’s calculation. In 2008, the U.S. Agency for International Development gave Angola $40 million in assistance.

“I’m not looking at what anyone else can do, I’m looking at what the United States can do,” she said.

Clinton is the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Angola since Colin Powell tried to solicit support for the Iraq war in 2002, when Angola held a seat on the United Nations Security Council. No secretary of state has ever spent the night here as Clinton will and no U.S. president has visited Angola since it became independent in 1975.

Clinton came to Angola, which surpassed Nigeria as the largest African producer of crude oil in July, in a nod to the country’s growing prominence in the hydrocarbon sector. Even with its enormous resources, the country of 17 million needs investment in infrastructure, coaxing on transparency and an alternative to Chinese investment, U.S. officials and analysts say.

To contact the reporter on this story: Janine Zacharia in Luanda, Angola at jzacharia@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 9, 2009 10:57 EDT