MAPUTO, July 11: African leaders met on Friday to examine some of the continent’s chronic conflicts, but the absence of key presidents cast a shadow over their efforts.

Civil wars in Liberia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan and Somalia were all on the agenda of the second day of the 53-member African Union summit in Mozambique.

But the presidents of Liberia, Burundi, DRC and Somalia were notably absent from Friday’s closed session, having stayed away from the three-day meeting in the capital Maputo.

An African tour by US President George W. Bush this week has also robbed the summit of two influential leaders.

Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni left Mozambique early to host Bush, who is winding up his first African tour by visiting their countries on Friday and Saturday.

The African Union’s new chairman Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano said on Thursday African countries must do more to achieve peace on the continent.

“Our people need peace and development, not war and poverty,” he said.

The mounting chaos in Liberia, wrecked by an on-off civil war since 1989, could soon be eased by deployment of a West African force with possible US military support, Obasanjo told a news conference on Thursday before returning home.

The Nigerian leader said the Economic Commission for West African States (ECOWAS) could send 1,000-1,500 men to stabilise Liberia within two weeks.

BURUNDI FIGHTING: AU officials said African leaders would discuss what needed to be done to calm Burundi, where rebels shelled suburbs from the outskirts of the capital Bujumbura on Thursday.

The outgoing chairman of the AU, South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki, has deployed his wealthy country’s political and economic clout to try to bring intractable African conflicts under control.

On the summit’s first day on Thursday Mbeki questioned the will of some African leaders to resolve conflicts and build stronger AU institutions to boost democracy.

Many nations are behind in their fees to the AU and barely a dozen have ratified the legal instruments needed to create core institutions like a Peace and Security Council.—Reuters