AU summit ends with call for unity

African Union (AU) Chairman Olusegun Obasanjo said Tuesday that African countries should be more united to realize the goal of the establishment of AU.

Obasanjo made the remarks at the closing ceremony of the fifth AU summit held in Sirte, a Mediterranean port city of Libya, which was attended by over 40 heads of state and government of AU members.

The prime aim to establish the AU is to realize the political and economic integration of Africa, and finally set up a united states of Africa, Obasanjo said.

Thus, the AU decided in this summit to establish a special committee, which is expected to be chaired by Obasanjo and made up of presidents from Kenya, Senegal, Algeria, Uganda and Lesotho.

The African leaders will discuss specific efforts over the issue next month, Obasanjo added.

Meanwhile, in a final declaration after the summit, African leaders vowed to redouble their efforts to eradicate poverty and promote socio-economic growth in a bid to achieve UN-designed development goals within the deadline.

They pledged to fulfill their commitments to the UN Millennium Development Goals agreed by all UN member states in 2000 aimed at halving the 1 billion people living with extreme poverty and hunger in the world, reversing the spread of AIDS and malaria and providing basic education by 2015.

The declaration acknowledged that although some progress had been made in some African countries, more needed to be done in order to attain to the goals within the deadline.

In addition, the leaders were eager to attract foreign investment to insert more energy into the continent's economic growth, pledging to promote peace and security and ensure good
governance for the creation of an investment-friendly environment.

The final declaration especially highlighted the importance of stemming conflicts and achieving peace on the continent for reaching UN development goals and envisioning a conflict-free Africa by 2010.

"African leaders are resolved to address conflict and political instability on the continent, with the aim of achieving a conflict-free Africa by 2010 by prioritizing and allocating more resources to conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction," said the
declaration.

The African leaders also called upon Group of Eight industrial nations to write off all the debts owed by the continent.

Praising the G8 for agreeing to wipe off a 40 billion US dollars debt owed by 18 of the world's poorest countries including 14 from sub-Saharan Africa, African leaders called for complete debt relief to all African countries.

Calling for a fair and equitable world trading system, the AU urged developed countries to remove trade barriers and cancel agricultural subsidies and tariff in a bid to ease Africa's access to international markets.

During the two-day summit, African leaders also approved a resolution which calls for two permanent seats with veto power for Africa in an expanded UN Security Council.

The AU, modeled on the European Union, was launched in 2002 to replace the Organization of African Unity.

Source: Xinhua