Washington ? President Bush and Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki celebrated the East African nation’s young democracy Monday and pledged to cooperate so Kenya can become a peacemaker in a region plagued by instability and terrorism.

Kibaki asked Bush for more American help in stabilizing Kenya’s eastern neighbor, Somalia, a country with no central government and one terrorism experts say is a concern because of the lawlessness there.

“I emphasized that in order to maintain the democratic gains and to sustain the war against terrorism, it is essential that Somalia stabilizes,” Kibaki said at a joint news conference with Bush. “In this respect, it is important for the U.S. to increase its involvement in this search for peace in Somalia.”

Bush made no commitments in the news conference during Kibaki’s state visit — just the fourth Bush has hosted as president, and the first time he had so honored an African leader.

But, Bush said, “The establishment of an effective representative government in Somalia will help stabilize the region and dispel the hopelessness that feeds terror.”

Bush and Kibaki also discussed peace efforts in Sudan, a country on the U.S. list of terror-sponsoring states where Kenya is trying to broker an end to 20 years of civil war. Formal negotiations resume this week.

The focus of the two leaders’ meetings was terrorism and Kibaki’s efforts to fight it — first, at home.

On Nov. 28, a car bomb killed at least 10 Kenyans and three Israelis at a hotel north of the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa. Minutes before that attack, assailants unsuccessfully tried to shoot down an Israeli charter jet with shoulder-fired missiles as it was taking off from Mombasa’s airport. In 1998, the U.S. embassy was bombed, killing 219 people, including 12 Americans.

Kenya has yet to convict anyone in connection with either of the two big attacks, both blamed on al-Qaida.

Bush said Kenya has “disrupted terror operations” and arrested an unspecified number of terror suspects, but did not elaborate.

U.S. officials believe al-Qaida is active in Kenya, and some have been critical of Kenya’s efforts to tackle terrorism.

Kibaki has set up an anti-terrorism unit and pledged to create a national counterterrorism center.

Bush made no mention in two appearances with Kibaki of the travel warnings that the State Department has in place for Americans considering going to Kenya. Terror alerts issued by the United States and Britain in May angered many Kenyans and sent the all-important tourism sector into a nosedive.

Bush pledged last week to discuss the matter with Kibaki, hinting that his administration was open to lifting the warnings.