African Union (AU) foreign ministers continued their executive council meeting in Libya's resort city of Sirte on Saturday, mainly discussing peace and security issues on the continent.

Diplomatic sources said that the ministers spent part of the day discussing the continent's peace and security, including the situation in Darfur as well as issues of Togo, Ivory Coast, Somalia, Burundi and Congo.

The ministers began their meeting on Friday to prepare a summit session of AU heads of state on Monday and Tuesday. They must finalize all issues raised prior to the fifth AU summit on Saturday.

No more details about the foreign ministerial meeting were disclosed, but Said Djinnit, AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, told reporters in Sirte Saturday that the recent fighting in eastern Sudan between rebel forces and government troops is a cause for concern.

"Its a matter of concern, obviously" and the AU was not expecting "incidents to spread across Sudan," he said.

The senior AU official noted that the AU expanded force for the troubled Darfur region in western Sudan was on track, which should be deployed before the end of September.

The AU has planned to increase its troop numbers in Darfur to over 6,000 from about 2,700 currently.

Meanwhile, the ministers also discussed possible candidates for permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council at a closed session Saturday, but still did not reached a common position.

"Egypt and Burkina Faso want, for example, the criteria for nomination to be established," while Libya and some other countries want the principle of two seats for Africa to be accepted first so the Africans can themselves decide on their representatives, disclosed a participant who asked not to be identified.

Egypt's official MENA news agency said Friday that during their two-day meeting, the foreign ministers are to discuss recommendations and reports drawn up by the AU permament representatives committee during the past days.

Their discussions are also to dwell on Cairo's proposals for setting up an African centres on treatment of AIDS and contagious diseases and on scientific research and technology, and launching a pan-African satellite channel, in addition to a number of financial and administrative issues. After the ministerial meeting, the council is to refer a report on the outcome of their discussion to the annual AU summit.

Source: Xinhua