Maher leads Egypt's delegation to African Summit

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher will arrive in the Zambian Capital Lusaka on Friday to lead Egypt's delegation to the 37th ordinary session of the African Summit meetings, due to open on July 9-11.

Assistant Foreign Minister for African Affairs Ambassador Ibrahim Ali Hassan arrived in Lusaka Wednesday to lead Egypt's delegation to the 74th session of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) ministerial council, which will start meetings on Thursday in preparation for the Summit meetings.

The experts committee wound up their meetings earlier in the day, during which they discussed the agenda of the ministerial council in preparation for referring the recommendations to the council meetings.

In statements upon arrival on Wednesday, Ambassador Hassan termed Lusaka Summit as being historical as it would be the last summit for the OAU that will be replaced by the African Union. Some 36 countries have endorsed the constitutional act of the African union.

"Egypt has finalized the ratification measures approved by the People's Assembly on Monday," he said, adding that Egypt would be the 45th country to endorse the Document of the Union.

Hassan explained that Lusaka Summit would focus on means of establishing the mechanisms of the new Union.

The Summit will probe benefiting from similar regional and international blocs such as the European Union (EU).

"The Summit and preparatory meetings will mainly deal with the process of turning the OAU into theUnion that will take a new shape that differs from the OAU general secretariat," he added.

"Lusaka summiteers will look into a number of important issues mainly conflicts in Africa such as those in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Comoros, Somalia and Angola along with the latest peace developments between Eritrea and Ethiopia and the Lockerbie and Middle East issues," he said.