Tanzania welcomed visiting former U.S. President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Thursday, ignoring a call by Amnesty International to arrest him for U.S. torture of suspected terrorists during his term.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete received the couple in the capital, Dar es Salaam, and thanked Bush for supporting the African country's campaign to curb AIDS and HIV infection.

"With people of goodwill like you, Mr. President, I believe, together we shall fight and win the war against HIV/AIDS and achieve our target of an HIV-free generation in half a decade," said Kikwete, according to AFP.

Kikwete was referring to the U.S. Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief that Bush initiated and the Obama administration continues to support.

Bush, his wife and Kikwete visited a cancer treatment centre in the Tanzanian capital as part of the former American leader's itinerary.

Bush is on an African tour starting Monday that will see him promote efforts to fight cervical and breast cancer in Ethiopia and Zambia as well.

Amnesty said the African countries have the obligation to arrest Bush.

"All countries to which George W Bush travels have an obligation to bring him to justice for his role in torture," Matt Pollard, Amnesty's senior legal adviser, was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.

He accused Bush of allowing waterboarding of detainees at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The "harsh interrogation technique," generally considered torture, subjected 9/11 suspect Abu Zubaydah to a simulated drowning to force him to answer questions of CIA agents.

So far, the Amnesty International call for Bush's arrest has been ignored. Canada also did not arrest Bush when he attended an economic summit in that country in October.