Zim postpones African summit
23/04/2008 07:27  - (SA)  

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Harare - Zimbabwe has postponed indefinitely an annual summit of Africa's largest trading bloc that it was to host next month due to the electoral uncertainty in the country, state radio reported on Tuesday.

The two-week summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African (Comesa) had been scheduled to run from May 1-15 in the country's northwestern resort of Victoria Falls. Founded in 1994, the trade bloc includes 19 countries.

"The postponement follows the realisation that the original summit dates might coincide with the country's yet uncompleted electoral process," state radio cited a foreign affairs ministry statement as saying.

The statement said a new date for the summit would be announced later.

Zimbabwe went to the polls on March 29 and, nearly a month after the contest, results of the presidential election between incumbent President Robert Mugabe, 84, and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 56, remain unknown.

A partial recount is under way of parliamentary elections also held on March 29, which were officially won by Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The results of the recount may not be known before the week's end.

Mugabe attended last year's Comesa summit held in Nairobi and was named vice chairperson of Africa's main trading bloc, meaning that Zimbabwe was due to host the group's next summit this year.

- AFP

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