East African leaders will meet later this week in Arusha, northern Tanzania to study the process of regional integration, local media reported Wednesday.

The Council of Ministers of the East African Community (EAC) assigned to work on fast integration of the regional bloc has saidthat the report on the EAC political federation is ready and will be presented to the 6th summit to be held on Friday.

According to an statement, eastern African leaders to attend the summit including President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Paul Kagame of Rwandaand Domitien Ndayizeye of Burundi.

The three heads of state of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania agreed to establish the EAC federation when they met in Nairobi earlier this year.

A committee was appointed in August to interview politicians and civil society groups in the three east African countries on the federation.

Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are also to examine the means conducive to expediting the integration process and high on the summit agenda is the implementation of the pact signed to establish the EAC customs union.

The customs union, one of the key steps toward regional economic integration, is expected to be effective by January next year. Other key steps include a common market and a common currency.

The three east African countries have a total of population of over 90 million and an area of 1.76 million sq. km.

Source: Xinhua