ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — A summit of African leaders shifted its attention Friday from the crisis in Kenya to Chad, with delegates voicing fears of a major conflict that could scupper peace efforts in Sudan.
The 53-state African Union also elected Gabon's foreign minister, Jean Ping, as the new chairman of its main executive arm, replacing the charismatic Alpha Omar Konare, Mali's former president, who had been at the helm since 2003.
As Chadian rebels on a major offensive clashed with government forces only 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the capital Ndjamena, officials attending the summit in Addis Ababa held a series of special meetings.
One high-ranking AU official told AFP the fighting could have a serious impact on the deployment of a European peacekeeping force in Chad and of an African Union-UN contingent in neighbouring Sudan's Darfur region.
"This attack means that everything is up in the air," said the official, who declined to be identified.
The European Union announced Friday it was delaying the deployment of troops and equipment.
The so-called "hybrid force" being set up by the AU and UN in Darfur also faced fresh challenges, as the Chadian rebel attack was launched from Sudan, raising the prospect of instability along Darfur's border.
But as the top UN envoy in Sudan, Jan Eliasson, put it earlier: "Darfur and Chad cannot be divorced."
European ambassadors attending the African Union summit also held a special meeting on Chad Friday, after an opening day dominated by the crisis in Kenya.
African leaders and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday pressed Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his opposition rival Raila Odinga to do their utmost to quell post-election violence. The clashes have left around 1,000 dead.
Odinga accuses Kibaki of having stolen the December 27 presidential election.
"In such situations, the accepted rule is to resort to the established constitutional mechanism," Kibaki told a meeting of African leaders Friday.
"Regrettably, although the elections results reflected the will of the majority of Kenyans, the leaders in the opposition instigated a campaign of civil unrest that resulted in over 800 deaths," he said.
The UN's top envoy for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, warned that a security vacuum in Kenya risked inviting further trafficking and a spillover of violence from neighbouring Somalia.
The summit was due to close on Saturday after a special meeting of heads of state and government on the crises in Kenya, Chad and the Comoros.
On the Addis Ababa summit's second day, delegates elected veteran Gabonese politician Jean Ping to take over the chair of the AU commission.
"I know that he's a man of many qualities. He's capable of representing the whole of Africa," Libyan Minister for African Affairs Ali Triki told reporters.
"We will continue working with him. His priority should be to move towards a government for the union as a first step towards the creation of the United States of Africa," he added.
His predecessor, the outspoken Konare has been credited with putting the continental organisation on the world map but criticised for failing to reform its institutions.
African leaders gathered in Ethiopia have been discussing an audit that was ordered a year ago into the body's management.
The decisions on the AU's internal structure and leadership come as the body seeks to acquire credibility on the international stage and take responsibility for solving its own problems, free of international pressure.
"Our continent's future is in our hands," Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said Thursday after being chosen as the AU's new chairman.
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