Presidents and top officials from African Union (AU) countries on Saturday formally ended a two-day AU summit in Libya agreeing to work together to tackle the crucial issues of water and agriculture and politely dismissing their host's idea of a creating single African army.
Libyan leader Moamer Gadhafi's idea would involve replacing all existing government forces across the continent.
The summiteers pledged only to study this plan, along with others on a continental non-aggression pact.
The closing ceremony of the summit was delayed by several hours because Gadhafi raised his single-army idea at the last minute, according to several delegates.
"Any national (African) army should be put in a museum," the Libyan leader said during the closing ceremony. "A day will come when there are no national African armies," he said.
But this is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future. "It's never going to work. Nobody supports it," scoffed one west African delegate in Sirte, the Libyan coastal town where the summit took place. Instead, the AU is set to move forward with well developed plans for establishing a standby force responsible for peacekeeping, humanitarian activities and, in rare circumstances, military intervention in a member state, if necessary without an invitation.
Speaking at the summit's opening ceremony on Friday, Romano Prodi, president of the European Union's executive, the European Commission, said the EU was prepared to help fund such a force to the tune of 250 million euros (311 million dollars).
The principle of common defence - that an attack on one state should be considered an attack on the entire continent and that all African countries should work together to prevent and resolve conflicts - is enshrined in the founding charter of the AU.
The AU, which takes after the EU, replaced the 39-year-old Organisation of African Unity in 2002.
The new AU policy expands the traditional definition of defence and security to include not just states but citizens and their economic, nutritional and health-related well-being.
A "solemn declaration" supporting this policy was adopted at the summit. The only concrete decision taken during the talks was to set up an African Water Facility, a financial institution geared to addressing the continent's dire water problems.
This project was contained in a document called the Sirte Declaration on the Challenges of Sustainable Development of Agriculture and Water Resources in Africa, which the heads of state also adopted.
African leaders to set up peacekeeping force
African leaders have agreed to set up a multi-national military force empowered to intervene unilaterally in serious conflicts around the troubled continent, delegates at an African Union (AU) summit said on Saturday.
The African Standby Force would begin with the deployment of some 15,000 AU troops at five regional bases by 2005, expanding to a continental force by 2010, the sources said.
The new force will be allowed to intervene to end civil wars or genocide.
The new force will operate under the direction of the AU Peace and Security Council. Modelled onto the UN Security Council, this new body will be set up in March at a meeting at AU's headquarters in Addis Ababa.
It will have 15 permanent members, the sources said, selected for their known respect for democracy and human rights.
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