From Kwaku Osei Bonsu, GNA Special Correspondent; Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou, Jan. 18, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Friday encouraged countries in the West African Sub-Region to ensure best practices in their electoral systems in order to maintain peace and security.

Addressing the 33rd meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, he cautioned that despite the improvement in the security situation in the Sub-Region, it was still fragile.

Much more effort, therefore, needed to be made to protect the fragile peace that they were enjoying through consolidation of democracy, rule of law and good governance. The day's meeting of the Heads of State and Government among other things reviewed the security situation in West Africa and considered a memorandum recommending the formalization of the ECOWAS Emergency Response Team (EERT).

President Kufuor, who is also Chairman of the African Union (AU), spoke of several positive developments the Sub-Region made in 2007 towards attaining peace and security, citing the rapid progress made by Cote d'Ivoire and Togo in the implementation of their respective peace accords and the pace of consolidation of democracy in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

He announced the launch of the Regional Road Transport and Transit Facilitation Programme, the main components of which are the construction of joint border posts; establishment of observatories of abnormal practices on major corridors; improvement of regional road infrastructure and sensitization on the community regulations related to transport facilitation.

Ghana, he said, had made considerable progress with her neighbours, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Togo in identifying sites for the establishment of common joint border posts.

President Kufuor called on the Sub-Region to move faster towards integration for the development and prosperity of their peoples. The way to achieve this, he said, was to take full advantage of the offer by Europe to share its experience with Africa under the New Partnership Agreement signed in Lisbon, Portugal in December, 2007. The Agreement envisages partnership between the two Continents on the basis of mutual respect to promote peace and security, good governance, respect for human rights and trade among other things. Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, President of the ECOWAS Commission, deplored the unrest in the North of Mali and Niger and expressed full solidarity with the Governments and peoples of the two member countries of the Sub-Regional body as they strived to defend their territorial integrity.

He applauded the success of the Ougaugadougou agreements, which had laid the appropriate foundations for restoring sustainable peace to Cote d'Ivoire.

He said it was crucial that all Ivorien stakeholders actively involved themselves in the process towards the holding of transparent and credible presidential and legislative elections in 2008. Dr Chambas reminded them about the need to stand together and to work collectively to maximise the potential of the Sub-Region. 18 Jan. 08