Mubarak, Moussa to miss African conflict resolution conferences

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Amr Moussa both decided not to personally participate in the conferences of the summit and the Cabinet of the countries of the central council for the mechanism of terminating the African conflicts peacefully, in which 16 of the council's members, in addition to 5 countries including Egypt, are participating.

Mubarak and Moussa asked the assistant foreign minister for African affairs, Mohammed Shaeban, to head Egypt's delegation. Mubarak and Moussa cited their roles in the current efforts being exerted to avoid a military strike against Iraq and to reach a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis as reasons for not attending.

The two conferences will discuss methods of settling conflicts in Burundi, Rwanda, the Comoros Islands, Somalia, Angola, and in the region of the Great Lakes and the efforts put forth to that end by the organization and its member states.

The conferences will also discuss proposed initiatives to support African capabilities to maintain peace, among which is a US initiative to establish a force that includes specially-equipped peacekeeping units from member countries, which would be financed and trained by Washington.