PRETORIA, Dec 9 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ended a visit to South Africa Saturday with a breakfast meeting with Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Immediately after the 90-minute meeting, Albright left for the Indian Ocean republic of Mauritius to continue a swansong tour which will also take her neighbouring Botswana.

The meeting focussed on similar issues raised in Albright's meeting Friday with President Thabo Mbeki, including democracy, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, bilateral ties, cooperation in the UN and regional issues, Albright and Dlamini-Zuma told reporters afterwards.

"South Africa is obviously the leading country in the continent and very important as a democracy," Albright said, adding that this was why she wanted to visit the country before leaving office once the new US administration was in place.

She added that "we also have to make quite clear to whoever is the next American administration that Africa is not optional for the United States."

Dlamini-Zuma said the incoming US government should remember its duty to "create a better world."

That included ensuring peace and security, promoting democracy and working with the world to eradicate infectious diseases, including Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which the government says has infected 4.2 million -- one in ten -- South Africans.

It also meant seeing that "no child goes hungry and that no mother has to bear the pain of having to lie to her child and say the rice is still cooking when there is no rice to cook ...," the minister said.

"If we don't create a better world it would mean the United States is failing because it has a very big influence on all of us," she said.

After meeting Mbeki Friday, Albright -- on her fourth visit to Africa as secretary of state -- said the next US president would have to deal with Africa "in great detail" as issues on the continent were in the US national interest.

Africa was neglected by Washington, but took a new importance under President Bill Clinton, who has visited the continent twice.

Albright arrived in South Africa on Thursday and met women business leaders and Anglican Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu in Cape Town before traveling to Johannesburg to tour an AIDS research unit.

From Mauritius she will travel to Botswana and then Algiers for the signing of a peace accord between Ethiopia and Eritrea before going on to Budapest, and then to Brussels for a NATO ministerial meeting on December 14-15.

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