From Benjamin Mensah, GNA Special Correspondent, Tripoli,

Tripoli, Nov 29, GNA -Dr Mohamed Chambas, Executive Secretary of the African, Carribean and Pacific (ACP) Group, has stressed the need for a balancing act between meeting the needs of the people in the Western Region of Ghana and a fair distribution of the revenue from oil and gas. He said the demand by people of the Western Region to alloted 10 per cent of the oil revenue to be used to develop the region was not a new phenomenon.

Dr Chambas suggested that the government should study the method some oil producing countries were using to address the request. Dr Chambas said this when he spoke to journalists prior to the opening of the third African/European Union Summit in Tripoli, Libya. He said the needs of the area where the oil was drilled had to be adequately catered for "but it is also necessary to ensure that oil resources are used in a principled way for national development." On the summit, Dr Chambas said both Africa and Europe recognised the need for a shift from development aid to cooperation and collaboration between the two continents.

He said the European private sector must collaborate more with the African private sector for investment opportunities. President John Atta Mills is in the Libyan capital to attend the two-day summit that will discuss issues of governance, climate change, migration and agriculture.

The summit is on the theme "Investment, Economic Growth and Job Creation." 29 Nov 10