Prime Minister Stephen Harper trumpeted a new aid initiative and paid a photogenic visit to school children, but played down a closed-door meeting Monday with a Canadian mining company embroiled in a legal dispute here with its local workers.

Harper confirmed he would meet with executives of Barrick Gold and other business leaders for what was to be a 45-minute discussion on improving the business climate for investors in this East African country.

But Harper's meeting with Barrick executives was not on his scheduled itinerary and journalists traveling with the prime minister only found out about it after Tanzanian reporters told them.

Harper's staff later confirmed the meeting with Barrick and representatives of 10 other Canadian resource firms.

"We always expect our companies to act responsibly and within the laws of the land of the countries that they find themselves located in," Harper said later at a joint press conference with his host President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete.

"I will be meeting a group of business executives representing Canadian companies here in Tanzania. Barrick will be one of them."

Harper said his meeting would not touch on the affairs of a particular company.

"We'll be discussing, obviously, the general business climate, what the government of Canada can do to assist in building our investments here. And obviously we always want to promote notions of corporate social responsibility," Harper said.

Mining industry watchdogs and the federal NDP have criticized Barrick's business practices.

Barrick is the biggest mining company in Tanzania, Africa's third largest gold producing country, and is embroiled in a court battle after more than 1,000 of its workers walked off the job last month. The company has begun hiring replacement workers, saying the strike was illegal.

Barrick's union has gone to court to seek an injunction to stop the hiring of the new workers. The case was to be heard Monday but was postponed a day.

In addition, the Tanzanian government has struck a commission to look at ways to possibly raise the three per cent royalty rate it receives from foreign companies, without discouraging further investment.

Harper said he wasn't in the habit of telling countries how to conduct their domestic affairs, but that he wanted Tanzania to build a stable investment climate.

"I think it's important that review consults all of the actors, including investors and potential investors," said Harper.

"Our companies are very active here and very anxious to work to help Tanzania realize its full potential in the mining industry."

Kikwete defended Barrick and other foreign companies operating in his country, saying their actions are governed by Tanzanian law.

"It's not that Barrick came here and came up with their own law," Kikwete said. "It is our law ... It defines who takes what."

The Tanzanian leader said he hoped his country's mining review would improve the current agreement "so both of us can win. We are not trying to create a situation where they will lose out ... we want to create a win-win situation."

In Ottawa, the NDP's foreign affairs critic, Paul Dewar, said Harper was getting only one view of Tanzania's mining industry.

"Instead of meeting with representatives of Barrick, a Canadian company that has caused conflict in the community, the PM should be meeting with the people directly touched by the action of this company that has fired unionized workers, totally disregarded the environment and failed to protect worker safety," he said.

"And the prime minister should certainly explain to the people in that community the position of his government on corporate social responsibility."