West African summit ends

West African leaders have ended a one-day summit in the Togolese capital, Lome, with an agreement to set up a body to prevent conflict and supervise peacekeeping in the region.

Details of the agreement are to be worked out later by defence and foreign ministers.

The nine Heads of State who attended the summit expressed their appreciation of the role played by the West African military intervention force, ECOMOG, which is currently stationed in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

But correspondents say ECOMOG which is dominated by Nigeria has been accused of getting too close to the conflicts in both these countries.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service