Somalia, Darfur top agenda at Africa summit

BANJUL, July 1: The rise to power of Islamists in Somalia and Sudan's Darfur crisis top the agenda at a summit of Africa's leaders in Gambia this weekend, but there seems little chance of much progress on either issue.

The six-monthly meeting of the 53 members of the African Union is likely to be dominated by the twin crises in northeast Africa but it was clear after the preparatory meeting of foreign ministers this week that there were severe obstacles to a breakthrough on either issue.

In Darfur the African Union wants to hand over peacekeeping duties from its own understrength, under-resourced force of 7,000 troops to United Nations soldiers by September 30.

But on Thursday Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who is expected for the two-day summit, issued the latest in a series of uncompromising rejections of a UN deployment.

''We will not allow international troops under the UN to deploy in Darfur,'' Bashir said in an open-air speech attended by thousands of people in Khartoum.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who calls Bashir's position ''incomprehensible'', will try to change the Sudanese leader's mind at a meeting during the summit.

But Western and African diplomats in Banjul said that despite widespread revulsion over the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Darfur, the international community had hardly any leverage to induce Bashir to change his mind.

The African force is trying to protect more than 2 million refugees in western Sudan and monitor a faltering ceasefire between rebels, government forces and their Janjaweed militia allies who are accused of massacres, rape and pillage.

SOMALIA There seems no more chance of doing anything about Somalia, where Islamists ejected secular, US-backed warlords from Mogadishu on June 5 and now control a large swathe of the country.

Despite the power of the Islamists, who this week said they would extend the authority of sharia courts throughout Somalia, the AU said it would not deal directly with them. The Islamist side is apparently not even present at the summit.

Somalia's weak but internationally recognised interim government is here, but says the takeover of the Islamist leadership by hardline factions has thrown into doubt talks later this month intended to defuse rising tension between the two sides.

The summit is also likely to see some vituperative anti-American rhetoric from two non-African leaders, special guests Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.

Gambia's invitation to the two presidents has caused consternation among Western diplomats present as observers in Banjul. They said the invitation may reflect a drive by Africa to show its independence of the West and assert a more strategic world role.

Reuters