Lome - The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, told African leaders yesterday that many of the continent's problems were self-inflicted and that economic integration was the cure for conflict.
Mr Annan, who is from Ghana, urged the leaders attending the opening session of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit to follow the model of the European Union which he described as "probably the most successful example of conflict prevention in the last half century".
But a boycott led by Angola, which accuses summit host Togo of trading in the rebel diamonds that sustain its own civil war, and other notable absences, limited the turnout and scope for behind-the-scenes mediation efforts - in particular to defuse the conflict in DR Congo. The Libyan leader, Col Gadafy, who is pushing for the early creation of an African Union and won qualified support for the idea at a special summit in Libya in 1999, was among more than 30 heads of state and government present.
