Qathafi to African leaders: stop begging and become self-reliant

Egypt is keen to put all its potentials, abilities, and experience at the service of common African causes, as well as maintaining peace and security in the continent, President Hosni Mubarak said yesterday.

Egypt is also eager to participate in the ongoing UN-sponsored peacekeeping operations in Africa and combat terrorism, which hinders progress and development in Africa, President Mubarak told the African Union (AU) summit.

Killer diseases such as malaria, AIDS and TB, which claim millions of lives in Africa every year, are obstacles to the continent's efforts to achieve development and progress, the President said.

He called on African States to exert joint medical and scientific efforts in order to combat disease.

Libya's leader Muammar al-Qathafi urged African leaders not to go "begging at a summit of rich nations" this week, telling them to be self-reliant and reject conditional aid from the West.

AU chairman Olusegun Obasanjo called on the rich nations, at their summit in Scotland this week to provide the Continent with money rather than sympathy in its fight against poverty.

Obasanjo rejected the call to African leaders by al-Qathafi that they should not go begging to the rich nations' summit but instead embrace self-reliance.