UN seats top of AU agenda
2005-07-04 11:05
Sirte - The fifth summit of African Union heads of state opening on Monday in the Libyan town of Sirte will be given over essentially to the question of African representation on a revamped United Nations Security Council and to Africa's relations with the G8 group of the world's richest nations.
In all some 40 heads of state (out of a total of 53 member countries) are expected to attend the summit, according to AU spokesperson Adam Thiam.
Among the heads of state already in Sirte on Sunday evening were Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, Benin's Mathieu Kerekou, Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, Francois Bozize of Central African Republic, Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast and Djibouti's Ismail Omar Guelleh, AU sources said.
Declaration on African representation
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is to address the summit, also arrived in Sirte on Sunday. Security was tightened both in the town and on the roads leading in.
European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso will also address the summit.
The heads of state are expected during the course of their two-day meeting to ratify a declaration on African representation on the UN Security Council drawn up ahead of the summit by their foreign ministers.
The declaration calls for the allocation of "two permanent seats with full privileges including veto rights and five non-permanent seats on the Security Council" and reaffirms "the need to re-establish Africa's legitimate right to fair and equitable geographical representation".
Steering clear of a thorny issue
But for the time being at least, African heads of state are expected to steer clear of the thorny issue of allocation of the two potential African seats for fear of igniting regional rivalries between north and south, east and west.
Given that the summit comes just two days before the start of a meeting of the leaders of the world's richest nations in Gleneagles, Scotland, which a handful of African leaders will also attend, the Sirte meeting is expected to at least touch on the question of Africa's relations with G8 powers.
With the AU playing an increasingly active role in the resolution of different conflicts plaguing the continent, the summit will also address the troubles in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, the situation in Ivory Coast and how to help Somalia as it struggles to emerge from more than a decade of civil war and anarchy, officials said