Summit to touch on free trade, wars

Summit to touch on free trade, wars

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters): African leaders gather in Namibia on Sunday for a Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit set to be dominated by a free trade pact and the collapsing peace deal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Concluding an elusive free trade pact, which SADC officials believe would be a crucial boost to growth in this impoverished region, the war in Angola and the Congo's troubled peace deal will be the focus of talks, officials said.

But the 14-nation community currently headed by Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano will also tackle the economic decline of the sub-continent and the killer disease AIDS which has emerged as the greatest threat to the future of the region.

Around 11 million of SADC's 190 million population are infected with HIV/AIDS, statistics show. SADC acting executive secretary Prega Ramsamy told reporters that the meeting "will consider a report on the implementation of the Trade Protocol".