Ivorian gets top Africa job

The Libyan leader has pushed for the new African Union

Former Ivory Coast foreign minister Amara Essy has been elected as Africa's top diplomat at the Organisation of African Unity summit in Zambia's capital, Lusaka.

Mr Essy's job as OAU secretary general will be to steer the body through its crucial transition period into a European-style African Union.

This historic effort will require leadership, courage and a willingness to depart from the ways of the past, if it is to do for Africa what the European Union has done for Europe

Kofi Annan

The new grouping will have common institutions such as a central bank and parliament.

The OAU has frequently been criticised for ignoring bread and butter issues and Africa's leaders see the new union as a way of improving living standards on the world's poorest continent.

Diplomat

Our West Africa correspondent says that the 57-year-old, who is fluent in half a dozen languages, is a consummate diplomat at ease in a wide variety of situations.

Amara Essy: A consumate diplomat

After hours of voting, Mr Essy, backed by French-speaking African countries finally overcame Namibian Foreign Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab, who was supported by Southern Africa.

Mr Essy told the BBC's Network Africa that he was very happy to be elected but was aware that the job would be a very difficult one.

"You have many things to put in place... we will have to see what will be our priorities." The Ivorian Government will also be delighted with the election result, hoping that Mr Essy's appointment will deflect some of the negative attention that political unrest has brought to Ivory Coast in recent years.

Prosperity

Earlier, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan told the summit that Africa's wars threatened its hopes of prosperity.

Aims of African Union

Enhanced co-operation and integration

Parliament and court of justice to be set up next year

Modelled on principles of European Union

He made a vigorous appeal to African leaders to set aside their conflicts saying that wars in Africa were "in great measure the result of misguided leadership which is unwilling or unable to put the people's interests first".

The new grouping is the brainchild of the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who has already given $1m to fund the transformation process.

Another key part of the summit is a presentation of a combined plan to develop Africa, which calls on African leaders to consolidate democracy, and on the developed world to increase aid and investment.

The African Initiative, as it is known, is a merger of the Millennium African Recovery Programme (MAP) led by South African President Thabo Mbeki and the Omega Plan spearheaded by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.

DR Congo

On the sidelines of the summit, which brings together 39 African leaders, the president of Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, and Rwandan President Paul Kagame discussed ways of ending the fighting in Congo.

South Africa is promoting a development initiative

It was the first meeting of the two men since May, when Rwandan rebels were accused of mounting attacks from Congolese territory.

It is estimated that more than 1,000 Rwandan rebels have been killed since then.

Mr Kagame said that the meeting had gone very well, and he was optimistic about the outcome.

OAU

The African Union replaces the OAU. Critics say that throughout its 38 years the OAU has merely been a talking shop and a waste of money, while its supporters maintain that it has achieved its primary goal of African liberation.

The OAU devoted most of its life to the struggle against colonialism and against apartheid in South Africa.

The heads of state must still decide where to site the African Union's institutions. The Union's executive commission is expected to be located in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where the OAU was founded and has its headquarters.