EU leaders underline AFrica commitment FEIRA, Portugal, June 20 (AFP) - European Union leaders pledged Tuesday to help African nations in efforts to speed up economic growth and development. The EU commitment to Africa was symbolised by the presence at a two-day summit here of South African President Thabo Mbeki, who flew in to address the Europeans and then dine with them -- although he passed on the opportunity to set out Africa's concerns to reporters afterwards. Inviting him to the summit, Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Game said, was part of the European Union's wish "to bring Africa to the center stage of Europe's agenda" after the first-ever EU-Africa summit in April. In a statement issued at the close of the summit in this northern Portuguese town, the EU "reaffirmed its willingness to continue to support measures aimed at rapid economic growth and sustinable development" while recalling that peace, democracy, human rights and the rule of law were prerequisites for economic improvement. The statement also welcomed an offer from Portugal to host the next Europe-Africa summit in Lisbon in 2003. stb/ccr ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------