(culled from AOL)
CAIRO, Egypt (April 1) - Senior officials from Africa and Europe opened talks here Saturday to prepare for their leaders' landmark summit to tackle the chronic problems of the world's biggest continent.
The inaugural Africa-European Union summit on Monday and Tuesday is meant to raise international awareness of Africa's potential and plight, promote its integration into the global economy and develop peace and democracy in the region.
But early Saturday, African diplomats bickered over which heads of state would have the right to address the meeting.
''I'm sure everyone wants to represent the continent in a dignified way,'' said Algerian top diplomat Smail Chergui, predicting ''a brotherly solution through judicious proposals.''
Fifteen European Union heads of state and at least 20 leaders of Africa's 53 countries are expected to attend. Somalia was not invited because it does not have a recognized government and the remaining countries will send vice-presidents, prime ministers or other representatives.
Non-governmental organizations said a parallel summit on Sunday had been banned. ''The EU should be trying to promote civil society groups in Africa, not helping governments to silence them,'' said Peter Takirambudde, Executive Director for Africa of Human Rights Watch.
In the final declaration though, both sides have agreed to highlight the role non-governmental organizations can play.
Foreign ministers of the participating countries are scheduled to meet Sunday to iron out the differences that their officials fail to resolve on Saturday.
Salem Ahmed Salem, secretary-general of the Organization of African Unity, said the African foreign ministers would try to come out with a unified position for the summit, and were in agreement on most issues. Differences remain on debt and some matters relating to the final summit statement, he said.
On Tuesday, the final day of the summit, the leaders will release a ''plan of action'' with more than 50 suggestions on how to deal with debt, aid, human rights, women's rights, AIDS, health and education.
The EU has said the summit will not produce pledges of fresh financial aid, and that the funding for the ''plan of action'' will have to come out of the existing budget of billions of dollars Europe has earmarked for Africa.
There are also differences between the two sides on the summit's priorities.
The Africans want to talk about debt relief, increasing foreign investment and better trade terms.
The EU, a cosponsor of the summit along with the OAU, has said it will stress the need for human rights, democracy, rule of law and clean government. It also wants to place high on the agenda items such as arms and drug trafficking, refugees and illegal immigration.
Development in Africa ''cannot be solely achieved by aid flows or market access. They require good governance, a transparent and responsible management of public resources,'' said Christian D. Falkowski, the EU's ambassador to Egypt.
To the Africans, the statement sounded like colonial-style lecturing.
''We want Europe (to be) a partner in helping Africa in its economic and social development and not talk about human rights and good governance and things like that only,'' said Mustoofa Mohammed, an OAU researcher.
When asked how Africans will feel when the Europeans raise human rights issues, Ali al-Treiki, Libya's minister of African affairs, said: ''We as Arabs, Muslims and Africans care more than others about human rights because man is sacred for us, and we are not waiting for others to lecture us.''
The summit takes place amid alarming U.N. warnings on impending famine in the Horn of Africa, and war ravaging the center of the continent.
The U.N. says as many as 16 million people are at risk from the drought, especially in Ethiopia. Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti have drawn down food stockpiles because of the drought, fighting and refugee flows.
In Congo, a war among eight foreign armies and local forces has caused unprecedented human and environmental costs, U.N. officials say. Nearly 1.1 million people have been displaced inside Congo, some 280,000 others forced into exile, the officials say.
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