MONTREAL–Bill Gates's charitable foundation has snuffed out a $5.2 million grant to a Canadian initiative to curb smoking in Africa, citing troubling federal links to the tobacco industry.

It nixed the federal project after learning a key player, Mulroney-era cabinet minister Barbara McDougall, had been on the board of directors at Imperial Tobacco Canada.

McDougall has been chair of the federal International Development Research Centre since 2007, and until a few weeks ago, was also on the board at Imperial.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said in a news release it's disappointed by what it calls an unacceptable conflict of interest.

The African Tobacco Control Alliance, a key Canadian partner in the two-year Research for International Tobacco Control project, joined the U.S. billionaire's organization in cutting ties with the project.

The alliance has pulled out of a pan-African conference it was to co-host with IDRC at the end of the month in Dakar, Senegal.

McDougall's position at Imperial Tobacco raised fears of industry influence in Africa, a region seen as a growing market for tobacco firms, the head of the alliance said.

"This is a clear conflict of interest," said the alliance's chair, Rachel Kitnyo. Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada condemned McDougall's continued ties, even if only informal, to the tobacco industry.

The Canadian Press