The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is considering establishing a regional parliament, a senior official said here Saturday.

"It's being considered," Albert Muchanga, the regional bloc's deputy executive secretary, told reporters in a press briefing during the bloc's annual meetings.

"Since the African Union parliament has been located in South Africa," the official said, "we are watching how it's going on."

The African Union summit decided on July 8 that South Africa, powerhouse of SADC, will host the new pan-African parliament, which will be the second AU institution to be housed in South Africa following the secretariat of the New Partnership for Africa's Development, Africa's homegrown recovery blueprint.

SADC has 13 member states after Seychelles' withdrawal. Other members are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Senior officials from these countries started their 9-day meetings of SADC here on Monday to discuss a number of important regional political, economic and social issues.

Heads of state will also come for a summit meeting from August 16 to 17.

Source: Xinhua