EFFORTS to end conflict across Africa, especially in Mali, dominated the African Union summit opening on Sunday, with the 54-member bloc's chief saying greater efforts are needed to build peace.
"Much still needs to be done to resolve ongoing, renewed, and new conflict situations in a number of countries," AU Commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in her opening speech.
"We cannot overemphasise the need for peace and security -- without peace and security no country or region can expect to achieve prosperity for all its citizens," she told the bi-annual summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
The 20th ordinary summit, which continues on Monday, opened with a minute's silence in memory of the late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Ghanaian President John Atta Mills, who died last year.
The meeting is expected to focus on the war against Islamist militants in northern Mali, including the scaling-up of African troops to support the weak Malian army.
Mali's army, boosted by the recent French military intervention, is battling Islamist insurgents, who seized swathes of Mali's desert north following a coup last year.
Dlamini-Zuma told leaders that the AU "must remain firm on its stance of no unconstitutional change" of leadership and that it must boost its "capacity to defend democratically-elected governments."
Following a security meeting on Friday, the AU resolved to bolster the strength of the African-led force in Mali, or AFISMA, and gave member states one week to commit troops to the mission.
"The force size will have to be significantly augmented," AU peace and security commissioner Ramtane Lamamra told reporters after the security meeting.
Lamamra said AFISMA's strength should be increased "to better respond to the needs on the ground," but declined to give numbers.
The AU will also seek urgent "temporary" logistical support from the United Nations to enable the AFISMA force to "speedily deploy and effectively implement its mandate," according to an AU statement.
The logistical support should include transportation, medicine and field hospitals.
Also high on the summit agenda is the slow progress between the rival leaders of Sudan and South Sudan to implement stalled oil, security and border deals.
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