LAGOS, June 19 -- Leader of 23 African countries, who have agreed to be reviewed by others on governance, met in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Sunday to review country reports of Ghana and Rwanda.

The Abuja meeting, the third such session of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), comes hardly two weeks before the summit of the G8 industrialized countries in Gleneagles, Scotland where they are expected to discuss African problems such as poverty.

At the opening of the meeting, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, also chairman of the APRM, noted that African countries have done "pretty well in ... mapping out an alternative mechanism for repositioning Africa for stability, peace, development and democracy."

Obasanjo, also chairman of the African Union, said the APRM was a critical instrument for advancing reforms in governance and economic development, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.

"The APRM is not an instrument for punishment or exclusion, but rather it is a mechanism to identify our strong points, share experiences and help rectify our weak areas," he said.

Besides receiving the country reports on Ghana and Rwanda, the leaders also reviewed progress made in addressing food security and hunger in Africa, achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals, and the progress on the establishment of the pan African infrastructure development fund.