Regional tensions concern African trade summit

DJIBOUTI, Nov 15 (Reuters) Africa's largest trading bloc met today to further regional cooperation but Rwanda's President Paul Kagame warned conflicts and political tension were hurting economic integration.

At least eight heads of state from the 20-member Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) are meeting in Djibouti to boost plans for a customs union by 2008 and set up a budget support and regional infrastructure fund.

The fund will help struggling economies deal with revenue losses as they slash trade tariffs.

''Internal conflict in Sudan and Somalia and tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia pose considerable challenges,'' Kagame, the outgoing chairman of COMESA, said.''Obviously these conflicts constitute a threat to our regional integration.'' The highly diverse COMESA trade bloc has a combined population of about 400 million people and groups some of the continent's smallest economies, like Rwanda and Swaziland, with some of the richest like Egypt and Libya.

The two-day meeting is also discussing progress in trade negotiations with the European Union, details of a common external tariff and also a list of sensitive products that may temporarily need protection from competition.

Analysts said COMESA's economic agenda could suffer from several conflicts including in Sudan's western Darfur region and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there are fears of violence after disputed election results.

Kagame was joined by Presidents Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi, Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti, Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

At a group photo taken in the tiny Horn of Africa state at the mouth of the Red Sea, Isaias and Meles stood on opposite sides on one of the rare occasions they have been seen together since their countries fought a 1998-2000 border war.

''If you look at these countries, they may be channelling their own interests through the COMESA forum, and that I see impacting a lot in the efforts to forge a common agenda towards facilitating peace resolution,'' Paul Kamau, a research fellow at the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi, told Reuters.

Mutharika said African leaders could not explain the high level of poverty while the continent was rich in resources.

''Our region is not poor but our people are poor,'' he said.

Africa has a huge potential for power generation, is rich in minerals and oil reserves.

REUTERS SY VV2103