SIRTE, July 4: Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi on Monday told African leaders their people’s woes would be solved by creating a borderless continent with a single passport. Asking for foreign aid would lead to humiliating failure, he said. “Begging will not make the future of Africa, (instead) it creates a greater gap between the great ones and the small ones,” he told the opening session of a summit of the 53-nation African Union (AU) in his home town Sirte. The veteran leader’s vision has had little impact on the agenda of the AU, due to adopt a broadly favourable stance on a British-backed drive for more help for Africa to be presented to this week’s Group of Eight summit.

But few delegates in Sirte were prepared to offer public criticism of Qadhafi or his ambitions.

Qadhafi has since 1999 pushed for the creation of a United States of Africa, complete with its own parliament and institutions. He says his plan does not necessarily mean a country’s sovereignty will be sacrificed.

Banners at the summit read “The United States of Africa is the hope” and “Enough plundering of African resources”.

Not wanting to offend Qadhafi, whose oil wealth and aggressive diplomacy have won him friends around the continent, African leaders praised the ideas and agreed to review them.

In power since a 1969 coup, Qadhafi says African nations must unite to survive in an increasingly globalised world.

The ideas sound seductive to many ordinary Africans who admire his anti-Western opinions and pride in the continent.

“We are one single nation ... we need to a unique African common market that is competitive,” said Qadhafi, dressed in a purple traditional robe and hat.

“Fifty per cent of gold in the world is in Africa, 95 per cent of diamonds are in Africa and 95 per cent of platinum is found in Africa ... it’s a very rich continent, but it is not exploited (by Africans),” he said.

Qadhafi made African unity a rallying call after failing to get fellow Arab leaders to support his campaign for a united Arab nation.—Reuters