Kufuor joins other African leaders for the 11th AU Summit

From Kwaku Osei Bonsu, GNA Special Correspondent, Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt

Sharm El-Sheikh, June 29, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Saturday night arrived at the Egyptian Red Sea Resort of Sharm El-Sheikh for the gathering of African leaders to discuss ways of scaling up and coordinating the Continent's efforts at achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The 11th Summit of the 53-nation Pan-African bloc, which would officially open on Sunday, is also expected to deliberate on issues of peace and security, progress towards political and economic integration and the global emergency created by the food and oil price hike.

The Africa-European Union (EU) dialogue as well as various strategic economic partnerships with regions and countries including China, India and Japan would engage the attention of the leaders. This would be the last time President Kufuor would be attending the AU Heads of State and Government Summit as leader of his country since he would be ending his tenure on January 7, 2009.

He would therefore use the opportunity to bid farewell to his colleagues.

The opening ceremony was preceded by a meeting of the Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), where Nigeria and Kenya were set to have been slated to peer-reviewed.

The West African state of Togo also signed on for future review. Earlier, addressing the 13th session of the AU Executive Council, Mr Jean Ping, the AU Commission Chairperson, said despite progress made over the past years in terms of entrenching democracy, the continent still faced challenges and needed collective effort and Commitment to consolidate the democratic values and practices, Africa sought to establish through the creation of the AU.

He noted that by simply organizing elections would not establish democratic governance and the rule of law, which were prerequisites for harmonious management of the society.

"The major challenge our continent now faces is to ensure that elections do not end up in unrests and or violent and often bloody protests," Mr Ping said.

"It is undesirable that in addition to the traditional conflicts often caused by precarious economic and social conditions or by denial of rights, elections should become a source of instability threatening the fragile socio-economic and political balance in our countries," he