ECOWAS Chairman President John Agyekum Kufuor on Wednesday stressed the need for mechanisms for early warning systems and institutions that have the credibility to be honest brokers when trouble looms or erupts in any area within the West Africa sub-region.

He said experience had shown that timely and concerted effort could achieve results and could be built upon. "Through the joint efforts of ECOWAS and the international community, Sierra Leone today enjoys relative peace and is engaged in re-building itself from the ravages of war," he said in an address to the second inaugural meeting of the ECOWAS Council of Elders.

President Kufuor said: "La Cote d'Ivoire is being pacified through the timely intervention of ECOWAS and the international community. There is a government of national unity in place and even though it is early days yet, there appears determination on all sides to work together to restore peace and prosperity."

The 15-member reconstituted ECOWAS Council of Elders, has representatives from each member state and were elected during the 26th Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Dakar this year. The establishment of the Council that would be in office for a year was based on the Protocol on Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security, to assist the ECOWAS Secretariat in the mediation and resolution of conflicts and monitoring of elections in the sub-region.

President Kufuor said it was no secret that the sub-region was bedevilled with political instability, conflicts and economic stagnation. To make any reasonable progress on the economic front and improve upon the quality of life of the people the sub-region must be cured of this debilitating malaise.

President Kufuor said in the current circumstances of the sub-region, ECOWAS required such a group to be counted upon to give informed and wise counsel to the Secretariat and the governments as well as the malcontents without the pressures of sectional political considerations.

"It is to be hoped that this new Council, both individually and collectively, will live up to this expectation." General Sheik Omar Diarra, Deputy Executive Secretary of ECOWAS, said peace and security had become more than ever before, a challenge that the sub-region must face.

He called on member states to team up to ensure that the protocol that led to the establishment of the Council and the additional Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance work effectively.

General Diarra commended members of the first Council for their commitment and preparedness to work for peace and security in the sub-region. He said during their tenure of office they participated in different assignments of consolidation of peace, especially through monitoring of elections in the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and Togo.

Antonio Mascarenhas Monterio, former Head of State of Cape Verde and a member of the first and second Councils, said the members were ready and prepared to ensure that peace prevailed in the sub-region. He said the sub-region had been hard hit by armed conflicts and cited the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone that had repercussions in neighbouring countries.

Monterio said peace and stability were essential elements for any country to develop and democratize and pledged the support of the members of the Council to participate in all initiatives taken by ECOWAS to ensure peace and stability. "We would live up to expectation in the confidence reposed in us by our Heads of State for our appointment to the Council," he added.