Topics of security, especially the situation in the Sudan's Darfur, where thousands were killed, have been dominating at the ongoing African Union (AU) meetings here, with AU Commission Chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare taking a two-day trip to Chad between the meetings to seek ways of resolving the Darfur crisis.

More than 40 African foreign ministers attending the four-day Fifth Ordinary Session of the AU Executive Council, which opened here Wednesday, dedicated the last two days to peace and security, examining all conflicts across the continent one by one.

Said Djinnit, AU commissioner for peace and security, told a press conference here Saturday on the sidelines of the AU Executive Council meeting that the ministers held a long closed-door session on Friday and Saturday to discuss every conflict situation in the war-torn region, including those in Liberia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guinea-Bissau, the Sudan, and Somalia.

The ministers, who took common positions on these conflicts, endorsed a strategic plan that defines "Peaceful Africa in a Peaceful World" as one of the 23 priority programs to be carried out in the region between 2004 and 2007 and sets the next 10 years as the African Decade for Peace and Combating Violence.

As part of an international endeavor, the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC), established in May, will meet on Sunday focusing on assessing the situation in Darfur and discussing possible resolution to the crisis, which has resulted in the death of more than 10,000 people and displacement of another one million since the rebellion by black African groups against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum broke out in February 2003.

The PSC meeting followed Konare's journey on Friday and Saturday to Chad, a major mediator in the Darfur crisis, where he discussed with relevant parties on the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Darfur.

On July 6-8, at least 43 heads of state and government are due to participate in the third AU summit to consider and adopt the strategic plan to be submitted by the AU Executive Council meeting. Conflict prevention and management will be topping the agenda.

AU spokesman Desmond Orjiako said on the sidelines of the meetings that the fresh efforts by the AU to create peace and security on the continent demonstrate the fact that Africa has come to address its own problems.

The history of the African peoples has been one of conflict and instability, a history that has had devastating effect on the development and progress of the continent.

Official figures indicate that not less than 26 armed conflicts erupted in Africa between 1963 and 1998, affecting the lives of 474 million people representing 61 percent of the population of the continent and claiming over seven million lives.

One of the consequences of armed conflict is the emergence of refugees, currently estimated at three million, and displaced persons, predicted at not less than 20 million, many of whom live in very difficult condition without adequate assistance from national governments or the international community.

Although the roots of the conflicts may lie in the unequal global economic order and the legacies and consequences of colonialism, neo-colonialism, and the Cold War, much of the hardships and instability Africans have faced have been self-inflicted.

This is why the AU has set as one of its priorities the promotion of peace and security across the region.

Over the last few years, the AU has made remarkable progress in conflict prevention and management on the continent, especially in such countries as Liberia and Burundi.

It has authorized the deployment of peace support operations in the Comoros and the Sudan, and renewed, on two occasions, the mandate of the African peacekeeping mission in Burundi.

Speaking at the opening of the AU Executive Council meeting, Alpha Oumar Konare, chairperson of the AU Commission, said the AU would continue to intervene in the conflict between the DRC and Rwanda, where tensions began to build up since reports emerged saying the DRC had moved over 10,000 troops to its troubled eastern area near Rwanda recently, following an apparent coup attempt in Kinshasa and insurgency in and near the strategic town of Bukavu earlier last month.

In the years to come, a series of new conflict prevention schemes will be carried out in the region, such as a systematic campaign for the prevention and rejection of unconstitutional changes, implementation of the Common Defense and Security Policy, promotion of international partnership for collective peace and security, and development of initiatives to combat the use of child soldiers.

Of all the schemes, the most noticeable will be the finalization and implementation of a continental peace and security architecture, the first of its kind in Africa, which will mainly consist of the Panel of the Wise, the Continental Early Warning System, and the African Standby Force to be established under the AU Peace and Security Council by 2010.

The AU, consisting of 53 countries, was launched in 2002 as a successor to the Organization of African Unity, and is modeled on the European Union.

Though faced with enormous obstacles ahead, it has set itself the ambitious task of transforming the world's most poverty-stricken and most troubled continent into a prosperous and peaceful place.

The AU constitution allows for interference in wars involving crimes against humanity on the continent.