African leaders name Congo to head AU, Sudan in 2007
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-01-25 09:14

African leaders named Congo to head the African Union and gave Sudan the leadership in 2007, settling a row over Khartoum's bid to lead the 53-nation body.

Sudan's candidacy to head the continental body had failed to win unanimous support because of the conflict in Darfur, where the AU is mediating peace talks and has deployed a 7,000-strong peacekeeping force.

President Denis Sassou-Nguessou, who ruled Congo for 13 years until 1992 and returned to power five years later in a coup, took over the chair from Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on the final day of the AU summit in Khartoum.

In an address to African leaders, Sassou-Nguesso pledged to work for peace.

"I take this as a call to history, the history of Africa's renewal," he said. "I plan to commit the continent on a resolute conquest for peace."

Khartoum last year signed an historic deal to end 21 years of war in the south but the conflict in Darfur has continued, claiming some 300,000 lives and displacing two million people since 2003.

Darfur rebels taking part in AU-sponsored peace talks in Abuja warned they would pull out of the negotiations if Sudan was given the AU presidency.

But a Sudanese minister said that Khartoum's ambitions to lead the African Union hinged on ending the violence in the western region of Darfur.

"The writing was clear on the wall right from day one that Africa was not going to give the leadership to Sudan simply because of Darfur," said Minister for Cabinet Affairs Deng Alor, who hails from southern Sudan.

"We are going to put our house in order, solve our problems so that come 2007 we take the lead," he said.

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said "Sudan will next year certainly be designated but on condition that the situation improves, that there is a solution for Darfur and a solution for its relations with Chad."

But Sassou-Nguessou said no conditions had been placed on Khartoum to take the chair of the AU, set up in 2002 with a new commitment to tackle the continent's problems.

"The Darfur issue is important but there are no conditions for Sudan to become chair," said Sassou-Nguessou.

US President George W. Bush's top adviser for Africa also said that Sudan should not take the helm of the AU if the bloodshed continues in Darfur.

"If they continue like they are now, in 2007, I doubt very seriously that Sudan can be president of the AU," US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Frazer told journalists on the sidelines of the summit.

Human rights groups had warned that giving Sudan the AU chair would be tantamount to rewarding the regime of President Omar al-Beshir, accused by the US of genocide in Darfur, and would damage the AU's credibility.

The flap over Sudan's AU bid dominated talks at the summit, which officially was to tackle issues of culture and education while touching on conflicts in Ivory Coast and Chad's border clashes with Sudan, among other problems.

Leaders also decided against extraditing former Chad dictator Hissene Habre to Belgium, who ruled from 1982 until he was deposed in a coup in 1990, to face trial for crimes against humanity.

A commission of legal experts will be established to examine the case and the fate of the 63-year-old ex-leader will be discussed again at the next AU summit scheduled to be held in July in Banjul, the capital of Gambia.