The 13th COMESA Summit ended in the resort town of Victoria Falls on Monday with a call for member states to increase economic cooperation.

All 19 members of the economic bloc attended the summit, which saw the launch of the COMESA Customs Union on Sunday.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who assumed the COMESA chairmanship during the summit, thanked the delegates who participated in the summit.

On Sunday night, he held a State Banquet for the visiting Heads of States and Governments who included Sudan's Omar-Al Bashir, Uganda's Yoweri Museveni and Kenya's Mwai Kibaki.

He challenged the delegates to go and speak positively about the country after having experienced the real situation in Zimbabwe.

"Now that you have witnessed the situation on the ground for yourselves you will be able to differentiate the reality from the subjective fiction created by our erstwhile detractors," he said.

The summit ran from May 28 to June 8. The customs union will result in the 19 member states stretching from Swaziland in the south to Egypt in the north implementing the same tariffs on imports.

Source:Xinhua