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African leaders elect OAU boss



LUSAKA, Zambia -- African leaders have chosen a former Ivory Coast foreign minister to head their continental body.

After hours of haggling, the leaders early on Tuesday elected Amara Essy as interim secretary-general of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) after several rounds of voting.

Debate on a successor to outgoing OAU chief Salim Ahmed Salim dominated the first day of the pan-African body's 37th summit, held in the Zambian capital Lusaka, Reuters news agency reported.

Essy will play a crucial part in the OAU's transition into the African Union (AU), an organisation modelled on the European Union and similarly powerful bodies in Asia and North America.

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"I have been elected to build the structure of the African Union. We will try to do our best," Essy told reporters as he faced the challenge of leading the construction of AU institutions almost from scratch.

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With support from French-speaking African countries, Essy finally overcame Namibia's candidate, foreign minister Theo-Ben Gurirab, who was backed by Southern Africa.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was warmly acknowledged at the summit as the main architect of the AU project.

"I would like to pay tribute to leader Gadhafi for spearheading this development," U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan said in his speech to the summit on Monday.

Negotiations about where to site the African Union's institutions, including a parliament, a court of justice and a central bank, have yet to start in earnest.

The AU's executive commission will be based in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, the home of the OAU.

South Africa will seek the summit's endorsement later on Tuesday for an ambitious plan to revive Africa's fortunes across the board -- peace, economy, education, infrastructure and the environment.

But the Millennium African Recovery programme, drafted by the South Africans with Nigeria and Algeria, has had to be merged with Senegal's rival Omega Plan to avert a damaging delay.






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