Gaddafi

ACCRA, Ghana (Reuters):

Could Marcus Garvey's dream come true?

An African summit yesterday debated the dream of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for a single state stretching from the Mediterranean to the Cape, but other leaders warned of tough obstacles on the way to that goal.

Gaddafi has long campaigned for a United States of Africa as the only way to address the continent's grinding poverty and myriad other problems, including the challenges of globalisation.

In an impassioned speech on the eve of the three-day African Union summit, he told cheering activists and students: "Our continent is backward, poor, suffering from illnesses, divided and exploited ... shall we allow such a situation to continue?"

Gaddafi ardently backs the immediate creation of a continental government, but most of his fellow leaders feel this is an unrealistic, if noble, dream that distracts from urgent crises in Sudan, Somalia and elsewhere.