Maputo - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi closed a businesslike African Union summit in Maputo on a bizarre note on Saturday.
Asked to give the vote of thanks at the end of the three-day summit, he instead went on a long rant in which he assured Africans they need not fear Aids, the mosquito and the tsetse fly as these were "God's armies which will protect Africa against the colonialists".
Summit host and new AU chair Joaquim Chissano seemed embarrassed by Gaddafi's speech, explaining that he was a man who felt very strongly about wrongs and that one should not get the wrong idea from his words. "I want to assure you that he supported all the decisions we took," Chissano said, clearly concerned that Gaddafi had contradicted many of the resolutions of the summit.
One was on Aids, malaria and other infectious diseases. The summit focused strongly on these diseases, holding a video conference with experts from around the world, and adopting a declaration committing the continent to renewed efforts to fight these diseases, including better partnerships with international donors and pharmaceutical companies to increase access to medicines.
But Gaddafi told the leaders: "Don't worry about the tsetse fly and the mosquito. They are God's armies which will protect us against colonialists. They are peaceful to us. They are enemies of theirs. If they come here they will get malaria and sleeping sickness."
He also reassured them they need not fear Aids "which is a peaceful virus, not an aggressive virus. If you are straight you have nothing to fear from Aids."
Gaddafi said Western countries were deliberately trying to frighten Africans with these diseases so they could sell more medicines, instead of focusing on development issues such as water and agriculture.
The summit was otherwise businesslike: President Thabo Mbeki, first chair of the AU, handed the chair to Chissano and the leaders also appointed the high-profile former Malian president Alpha Konare as chair of the AU commission, to raise the organisation's international profile.
Rwandan cabinet minister Patrick Mazimhaka, his country's chief negotiator of the Democratic Republic of Congo peace agreements, was chosen as Konare's deputy. "This will help Africa to deal with the world on more equal terms," commented Aldo Ajello, the European Union's (EU) special envoy to the Great Lakes.
The summit also endorsed a panel of personalities to manage the peer-review mechanism which will monitor whether member countries adhere to standards of good political and economic governance.
Two more African countries - Mauritius and Sudan - volunteered at the summit to be reviewed, bringing the total number of volunteers to 17.
After reviewing the state of 11 conflicts on the continent, the summit urged members to accelerate the ratification of a protocol on a peace and security council so that this could be established quickly to address the conflicts. Only 14 countries have ratified it, well short of the 27 required for it to be implemented.
They also accepted an offer from the EU to set up a peace support operation facility to fund peacekeeping operations by the AU. This would be financed by diverting funds from other EU aid programmes to Africa and could amount to more than e200 million a year, officials said.
The summit also discussed a common defence and security policy but did not reach any conclusion, amid fears by some countries, including SA, that such a policy could drag them into unwanted wars because of the proposed principle of mutual defence.
Instead the leaders decided to call a special summit over the next year to discuss the policy. The summit also readmitted the government of Madagascar to the AU, after suspending it last year.