Asked about Africom's goals, General William Ward said the command would work "to prevent conflicts as opposed to having to react. We want to work with our partners in ways that help create conditions of ... stability."

Later, after a ceremony, he told reporters: "The myth of great changes and all sorts of different things that frankly have frightened some people is not what it's about."

The US government announced early in the year that the Defense Department was creating a US Africa Command headquarters to coordinate all American military and security interests throughout the continent.

The US military involvement in Africa has so far been shared among the US European Command, the US Central Command and the US Pacific Command.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the command was "experimental in some respects," but gave assurances that it would follow the lead of the State Department.

"It is at its heart a different kind of command with a different orientation," he said at the ceremony.

"On the defense side, Africom's mission is not to wage war but to prevent it, not to show United States military presence but to enhance the security forces of our partners," he said.

Some African critics have sought to link the Africom project to the increasing reliance of the United States on imports of oil from Africa, especially the crude-rich Gulf of Guinea.

Nigeria has already refused to host Africom and has made known its unwillingness to have it based "anywhere on African soil."

The new command is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany with about 1,300 military and civilian personnel. Efforts to find a suitable location for it in the region were turned aside by African governments.

As of Wednesday, it absorbs an 1,800 member US military task force in the Horn of Africa based in Djibouti as well as US military-to-military programs that until now had fallen under the US European Command.

US military interest in the region has been fitful in the past, but strategists have become convinced in recent years that an unstable Africa was a potential breeding ground for threats like Islamic extremism.

"It is our best interest as a nation as well as for the international community of nations to have a stable African continent," Ward told AFP.

Ward said that while some critics might charge the United States is militarizing its foreign policy, it simply is not the case.

"We are not militarizing the continent, it is not our intent to do so. It is not our intent to take control over the resources of the continent, it is not the case," Ward said.

"What we hope to do is work with African nations as they want to do things to better protect their people, their territory and their borders."

US President George W. Bush, during a tour of Africa in February, reassured that the United States had no plans to build new military bases on the continent.

Asked about anti-piracy efforts and the Darfur crisis, Ward cited training possibilities with local governments.

"The United Nations took a decision recently condemning the piracy off the coast of east Africa. My command doesn't make policy. However, we certainly are watching those activities.

However, "we are conducting training activities with many of the coastal nations of Africa where our naval assets are used as a platform where we embark other international partners who also want to participate in helping Africa taking care of its territorial waters' security in a more effective way," Ward added.

On Darfur, "different nations have been participating in the mission, some have asked us to prepare their forces to go into Darfur, logistics support has been provided and we will continue to take that role, again all based on our foreign policy objectives," Ward said.

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