BRUSSELS: African and EU foreign and development ministers have agreed to create an “early warning system” and other measures to prevent conflict in Africa. The move is one of the first concrete proposals to follow up on an action plan for the continent agreed at the Africa-EU summit in Cairo, Egypt, last year.

Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, and who co-chaired the Africa-EU ministerial meeting Thursday, said irreversible progress had been made on a wide range of issues.

“I don’t think we have reached the stage of signing up to agreements here today, but we have made progress, we have agreed on a number of things that we cannot go back on,” he said.

“We are talking of insuring that Africa itself and the countries of Africa are equipped to prevent conflict. This is tremendously important,” said Michel.

He said that the meeting had backed an early warning system based on indicators to measure tensions, for example incitements to ethnic or religious strife in the regional media. “We will set up an “early warning system” to trigger diplomatic measures to prevent conflict. You can spot these things a long time before a conflict actually breaks out,” said Michel.

He was speaking at the close of the first ever Africa-EU ministerial meeting, a twice-yearly event which is intended to prepare the round for the next Africa-EU summit, to be held in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2003.

Over 50 African delegations were present, mostly represented by their foreign ministers. For the most part, the 15-EU member states sent their development ministers. Regional integration, cooperation and integration of Africa into the world economy and trade were discussed.

Ministers noted “a narrowing of differences and the identification of common ground” on HIV/AIDS and other pandemics, on food security and human rights, democracy and good governance.

They also expressed their desire to “press ahead” with the preparation of an action plan to combat trafficking in human beings, particularly women and children.

Conference co-chair S.K. Waubita, the Zambian foreign affairs minister, taking stock of the meeting, said: “We have gone a little bit further, and agreed that some pilot projects should start in Africa, especially at regional levels, to train civil servants” to help implement the ambitious proposals.

Apart from these subjects, African ministers on Thursday briefed their European counterparts on the “transformation” taking place in Africa, namely the continent’s “home grown” strategy to develop trade, democracy and sound economic policy, known as the “New Africa Initiative (NAI)”.

The initiative aims to end war, poverty and disease on the continent by 2015. To attain these targets, experts have estimated Africa needs some $64 billion to grow its economy by seven per cent.

Thursday’s ministerial meeting came on the heels of a summit meeting in Brussels between EU chiefs and five African heads of state, at which the European Union warmly welcomed the initiative and agreed to meet twice a year with a special NAI steering committee.

Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa; Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria; Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal; Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria and Frederick Chiluba of Zambia attended the summit.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose country hosted the first Africa-EU summit, was unable to travel to Brussels, but sent his external co-operation minister, Ahmed Dersh, in his stead.

The NAI, dubbed “Marshall Plan” for Africa, was adopted by a summit of the 53-member OrganiZation of African Unity (OAU). That pan-African body that in the course of the year is to be transformed into a broader entity, the African Union - loosely modelled on the European Union.

“I think the combination of this vital Cairo process and the launching of both the New African Initiative and the African Union - all these pull in the direction of establishing a new and optimistic image of Africa,” said Poul Nielson, the EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid on Thursday.

“Considering the need to attract investment (in Africa), I think this is also extremely important,” he said. “This meeting demonstrates the vitality and usefulness of the Cairo process. Let us recall that the meeting in Cairo was something of an experiment, but it proved to be very successful,” added Nielson.

Whilst ministers agreed “on the need for further work” on the external debt of African countries and the return of stolen or illicitly exported cultural goods, no agreement was reached. Their next meeting will be held in Burkina Faso, on Nov 28.

In a separate statement, the ministers said the Sept 11 attacks on the United States were an assault on the whole global community and described terrorism as a “common threat”. —Dawn/InterPress Service.