Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has arrived in Cape Verde, ending her seven-nation tour of the African continent.

Clinton, who started her journey in Kenya, flew from Liberia on Thursday to Sal, one of Cape Verde's islands, and was due to meet Jose Maria Neves, the prime minister, at a resort hotel on Friday.

Cape Verde is a tiny Portuguese-speaking Atlantic Ocean nation. About half a million Cape Verdeans live in the US - largely in the northeastern New England states - roughly equal to the total population still living on the islands.

Aides said Clinton chose to spend a night in Cape Verde - often only a brief refuelling stopover between Africa and North America - in an effort to boost relations with the small but close US ally.

Cape Verde will be the first country to complete successfully a loan from the Millennium Challenge Corp, a US government-backed initiative that lends money to democratic countries, a US official said.

It signed a $110m deal under the initiative in 2005 to boost its economy, including through infrastructure projects and investment in agriculture.

In a sign of its Western inclination, Cape Verde agreed to be the site in 2006 of Nato exercises.

Clinton earlier visited South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Liberia.

In all of these countries, Clinton has been pushing for better governance across Africa.

She returns on Friday to Washington, closing the longest trip she has had since taking office in January.