Africa delays moves towards federal government

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – African leaders on Sunday again delayed concrete moves toward creating a United States of Africa, despite a long campaign by Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.
Gaddafi and other supporters like Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade, have been calling for years for an accelerated process toward a union government, saying it is the only way to meet the challenges of globalization, fighting poverty and resolving conflicts without Western interference.But they are opposed by other nations, headed by economic powerhouse South Africa, who see such an idea as a distant and impractical prospect.Gaddafi's proposal dominated a sometimes heated African Union (AU) summit in Ghana in 2007, but no deal was reached.The previous AU summit in Egypt last July produced a skeleton agreement and the first day of the current meeting in Ethiopia was devoted to the union proposal.Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete told a news conference on Sunday night the meeting had agreed only to change the name of the current AU Commission into an "authority," rejecting a proposal by the body itself to transform it immediately into a union government.Kikwete, the current AU chairman, said this would infringe the sovereignty of the AU's 53 states."In principle, we said the ultimate is a United States of Africa," Kikwete added, insisting the authority would have a bigger mandate, bigger budget and "bigger capacities" than the existing commission..more..http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090201/wl_nm/us_africa_summit