Nairobi/Praia, Cape Verde - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrapped up her seven-nation Africa tour in the tiny archipelago nation of Cape Verde Friday, calling her repeated criticism of African governance "tough love."

The secretary criss-crossed the continent in a whirlwind 11-day tour aimed at emphasizing the message President Barack Obama brought on his visit to Ghana in early July.

Throughout her trip, she called on African governments to end corruption, improve their democracies and respect human rights, particularly those of women.

"The Obama administration ... has given a message of tough love," she said after meeting Cape Verde's Prime Minister Jose Maria Neves.

"We are not sugarcoating the problems ... our emphasis is ... to channel the hopes and aspirations of the people of Africa in a way that changes the direction of their countries," she added.

Clinton, however, had nothing but praise for Cape Verde, calling it a "model of democracy and economic progress" in Africa.

Cape Verde, a former Portuguese colony that lies off West Africa, has had many peaceful and credible transitions of power. US officials have praised the nation for making good use of US economic assistance.

The praise was a far cry from the criticism she directed at other nations - particularly Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria - during her visit.

She rebuked Kenya's government for failing to prosecute those responsible for the violence that claimed the lives of around 1,500 people after disputed elections in December 2007.

In conflict-hit DR Congo she called for an end to the use of rape as a weapon of war, pushing President Joseph Kabila to bring his troops, accused of widespread sexual violence, into line.

Nigeria, Africa's most-populous nation and the fifth biggest supplier of oil to the US, was also given a lecture on corruption and democracy.

However, the message of "tough love" did not go down well in all quarters.

Just hours before her arrival, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga rebuffed criticism from the US ambassador to Kenya, saying that lecturing Kenya on governance and transparency was "in bad taste."

Analysts also said that foreign lecturing was becoming tiresome for a continent that is now building links with less-judgemental powers such as China, India and Russia.

"We have been hearing that ... since independence," James Shikwati, director of the Kenya-based Inter Region Economic Network, told the German Press Agency dpa. "She is playing an old record on a new machine - Africa is now aware the world is not just the West."

However, others said that the US message that Africa should resolve its own problems hit the mark.

Clinton had some kind words for Liberia, backing President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is facing calls to resign for backing Charles Taylor - a former warlord on trial at The Hague - in the early days of the West African nation's civil war.

She also visited South Africa to rebuild links with the African economic powerhouse and popped into oil-producing Angola.

One of the most memorable moments of the secretary's tour, however, came when a student asked her what her husband thought about Chinese investment at a public forum in Kinshasa, DR Congo.

"You want me to tell you what my husband thinks?" she snapped. "My husband is not the Secretary of State, I am."

Clinton was due to fly back to Washington on Friday evening.(dpa)