ACCRA, Dec 19 (AFP) - West African leaders from 15 countries opened a summit on Friday in Ghana that was likely to be dominated by the faltering peace process in Ivory Coast and the post-war transition in Liberia.
In a bid to promote reconciliation in Ivory Coast, rebel leaders who still hold half of the country since war broke out 15 months ago were invited to attend the summit along with President Laurent Gbagbo.
"The situation in Cote d'Ivoire is still worrisome, agreements have been reached and breached, " said Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, using the nation's French name.
"The conflict in this country has continued to linger on with attendant problems on the entire community and neighbouring countries," he said in an opening address.
But Obasanjo also stressed the need for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to get its "attention back to its main objective, which is our development."
"Our people will be better off if our resources are directed to fighting poverty and squalor," he added.
"They will be better off if our limited resources are used to address the problems of HIV-AIDS. Our community will be better off if resources spent on conflicts are used to provide infrastructure for development," said Obasanjo, whose country leads the peacekeeping mission in Liberia.
Host president and current ECOWAS chairman, John Kufuor of Ghana lamented that "the image of our sub-region as politically unstable and conflict-ridden is regrettable because it fails to reflect the many admirable achievements of ECOWAS, particularly the progress made in the economic sector during the current year."
After the opening speeches, the leaders went behind closed doors for talks. Twelve presidents turned up for the ECOWAS summit in the Ghanaian capital Accra, while three sent top officials in their place.
In Ivory Coast, 4,000 French troops and 1,200 ECOWAS soldiers are currently monitoring a ceasefire in place since July, while a small UN observer mission has had its mandate extended through February.
Ghanaian sources on Thursday said ECOWAS would announce that it is expanding its force in Ivory Coast ahead of a UN report due out next month that is expected to recommend the deployment of a peacekeeping mission to the divided country.
Liberia has been emerging under an interim government from the latest of a series of civil wars which wracked the country for almost all of the 1990s and came to an end in August when then president Charles Taylor went into exile.
Established in 1975 to promote west African economic integration, ECOWAS groups Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore sent his Prime Minister, Ernest Paramanga Yonli, to Accra. Guinea's Lansana Conte was also represented by his government chief Lamine Sidime. Vice-President Solomon Berewa of Sierra Leone was standing in for President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
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