WASHINGTON — President Obama will make his first official trip to sub-Saharan Africa this summer, the White House announced yesterday, spending two days in Ghana with his wife, Michelle, after visiting Russia and Italy.

The visit of the first African-American U.S. president will be heavy with symbolism. Obama is likely to draw a huge crowd from across the continent during the brief stay.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement yesterday that Obama will meet with Ghanaian President John Atta Mills in Accra to discuss a variety of issues.

Obama announced earlier this month that he will visit Egypt on June 4 to deliver an address to the Muslim world.

The Ghana visit, scheduled for July 10-11, will follow a trip to Moscow, where Obama is expected to meet with President Dmitry Medvedev to continue discussions on a new nuclear arms reduction treaty. Obama will then attend the Group of Eight meetings in L'Aquila, Italy, before heading to the western coast of Africa.

As a senator in 2006, Obama visited his ancestral village in Kenya and parts of Chad. The trip was part of a tour by the Africa subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.