AU Chairman Advices Guineans

Cannes, Feb. 17, GNA- The African Union (AU) Chairman, President John Agyekum Kufuor, has called on the Guinean Government to use all peaceful means to quickly return the country to normalcy.

The West African nation, with a population of about 10 million, has been plunged into turmoil over the demand by the country's powerful labour union that President Lansana Conte, who it says, "is too old and sick to govern" should resign. President Kufuor was addressing a joint press conference with French President Jacque Chirac and President Amadou Toumane Toure of Mali, to bring the curtains down on the 24th Franco-African Summit in Cannes, France.

He said the situation in Guinea, gave cause for serious concern and that every effort should be made to defuse it. The AU and the sub-regional body, ECOWAS, he said, were taking the initiative to respond to the crisis and prevent it from exploding into a major humanitarian disaster. Consequently, a delegation, is to be dispatched as soon as possible to the country to assist the parties to find a common ground.

Meanwhile, France has put in place an evacuation plan for its 2,000 nationals and 4,000 Lebanese in Guinea, should the crisis worsen.

President Chirac however, said it was his hope that things would not come to that as he was confident the AU and ECOWAS could help to end what he termed, "the threatening political stalemate." Turning to the summit, he said it was a huge success and demonstrated the vibrancy of the relations between his country and Africa.

Forty (40) African Heads of State and Government attended the two days conference held under the theme "Africa and the World Balance."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori also joined.

President Chirac said France was determined to continue with its campaign to dismantle and tear down international trade barriers to enable Africa derive maximum benefit from its raw materials. The Continent must be supported with the resources and means to become active part of globalisation, he added.

France has been championing the case of Africa for increased development assistance and is raising its level of Overseas Development Assistance to 0.7 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the year 2012. Two-thirds of this would come to the Continent. 17 Feb. 2007