Enlarge By Rodger Bosch, AFP/Getty Images Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visits a house under construction in Khayelitsha, South Africa, on Saturday.

"There is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the uneven quality of leadership that affects recruitment to key positions in some cases, and retention in others," said the report, written by a team of diplomats who interviewed Bureau of African Affairs employees.

Despite the criticism, the report said the Africa bureau "performs extraordinarily well in light of the constant, exhausting crisis management that characterizes much of its work." It praised the new leadership under the Obama administration, including Johnnie Carson, the new assistant secretary of African affairs.

However, the report said:

• Diplomats feel overwhelmed by new demands without additional staff.

• The group in charge of boosting the U.S. image is a "failed office" with no strategic plan and little integration with other diplomats.

• While the United States "helps feed Africa," it should focus more on helping Africans feed themselves — and on preventing HIV/AIDS as well as treating the condition.

• There isn't enough travel money to properly oversee a $2 billion Africa peacekeeping program.

• A new military command in Africa is "stepping into a void created by a lack of resources for traditional development."

• Corruption "receives insufficient attention as an impediment to trade, development and investment."

President Obama's focus on African political corruption, which he laid out in a speech last month in Ghana, has not yet penetrated the bureaucracy, that last finding suggests.

Clinton has addressed the issue repeatedly during her seven-nation African tour. In Angola on Sunday, she urged lawmakers to "stand against corruption."

The State Department "looks forward to considering the report's recommendations" and using them to improve the Africa bureau, spokesman Bill Strassberger said.