SOUTH AFRICA: South African President Thabo Mbeki opened an African Union summit yesterday with a call for leaders to speed up the creation of an African security council to tackle the region's many wars.
The first special summit of the African Union, brought together the continent's leaders to forge common policies on African conflicts and a possible war in Iraq.
"We continue to be confronted by the challenge of peace and stability on our continent," Mr Mbeki told heads of state at the opening session in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
Despite moves to create a council to intervene in African conflicts, a proposal from Libyan leader Col Muammar Gadafy to create a "United States of Africa" was seen as a step too far and rejected last month by AU foreign ministers.
Col Gadafy, known to supporters as "The Guide", arrived in Addis with an entourage of several hundred people. Asked how he felt about the United States threatening Iraq with war, he said: "It seems that the world we are living in is in a crazy era now, but there's nothing to do, except to take good care."