JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - African leaders meet in Nigeria Monday to discuss ways of implementing projects aimed at driving Africa's economic recovery but diplomats warned the crisis in Zimbabwe could undermine support from Western donors.
The two-day meeting in Nigeria's capital Abuja will be held under the auspices of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), and will bring together heads of state from 21 African states to firm up plans for an economic recovery.
NEPAD, modeled on the U.S. Marshall Plan for Europe after World War Two, seeks to target yearly investments of $64 billion to revive ailing African economies and annual growth of seven percent.
"The G8 meeting in Canada in June has to hear Africa no longer just saying they have a plan for an African recovery, but they must hear concrete plans that need concrete resources that need to be put in place," South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma told a news conference in Pretoria Sunday.
"The concrete proposals put forward by Africa will help the G8 to take resolutions on the basis of those recommendations. That is how important this (NEPAD) meeting is," he said.
The G8, which comprises the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations and Russia, will unveil an Africa action plan at its June meeting in response to NEPAD, to include tackling debt and the spread of AIDS (news - web sites), which has affected nearly 25 million Africans.
But diplomats said the political crisis in Zimbabwe, southern Africa's second largest economy, compounds an impression of Africa in terminal decline.
Zimbabwean elections earlier this month, which returned incumbent President Robert Mugabe to power, were widely condemned as flawed by the West. The United States has said African endorsement of Mugabe's win could damage support for NEPAD.
"MOCKERY OF NEPAD"
South Africa's opposition leader Tony Leon warned Sunday that the situation in Zimbabwe's "makes a mockery of NEPAD."
"How we deal with President Robert Mugabe's increasing defiance and the collapse of the rule of law...will test the commitment to the fundamental principles of freedom, democracy, good governance and the rule of law in southern Africa," Leon said in a statement.
Western nations expected to come up with most of the NEPAD cash have warmly embraced NEPAD but conditioned their assistance to the growth of democracy and good governance in Africa.
"There is no doubt that Zimbabwe has reinforced negative sentiments on Africa and African leaders need to deal with this situation otherwise Western support could be affected," a Western diplomat told Reuters.
"NEPAD cannot take off without Western help."
Zuma said a decision by the 54-nation Commonwealth grouping of mainly former British colonies to suspend Zimbabwe for a year was reached with the support of key African countries and Africa's stance on Zimbabwe should not be an issue.
A Nigerian statement Saturday said the Abuja summit would consider a report on priority projects and programs for NEPAD.
"These include peace and security, agriculture and market access, capital flows, economic and corporate governance, infrastructure and human development," the statement said.
The Nigerian statement said Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien would visit Nigeria on April 5 to meet six African presidents before hosting the G8 leaders in June.
Countries to attend the Abuja summit are: Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Cameroon, Congo Republic, Gabon, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Rwanda, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Zambia.
Tanzania, Uganda, Sao Tome and Principe and Ghana would attend as observers, the Nigerian statement added.
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