MAPUTO, July 04 -- The Minister of Defence, Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor has called on the donor community to join hands with Africa in finding an effective solution to the myriad conflicts afflicting the continent.

Identifying poverty as the fundamental course of conflict on the African continent, Dr Addo-Kufuor expressed the view that a major step would have been taken in stemming the idea of conflict in Africa if the high incidence of poverty, hunger and deprivation were effectively minimised or completely eradicated.

The Defence Minister who was speaking on the topic "European Union Support in Conflict Prevention as viewed from the African Perspective" at the International Conference on Conflict Prevention and Peace Building held in Maputo, Mozambique, emphasised on the need for a genuine partnership between Africa and the donor community in the fight against poverty as a pre-requisite for peace and development on the continent.

He appealed to the European Union and other donor countries to among others, seriously consider debt forgiveness as a viable option in lessening the burden on governments in Africa which despite being saddled with enormous debts, have still to contend with the difficult task of reviving their economies for eventual economic growth.

While agreeing with the call for democratic and socio-economic reforms as necessary in promoting economic growth and laying a firm basis for poverty eradication, the Defence Minister nonetheless asserted that failure to take account and to seriously lessen the heavy debt burden confronting African countries would negatively impact on the efforts at democratisation.

As he succinctly put it "democracy cannot thrive on an empty stomach neither can an empty sack stand upright" Continuing his submission, Dr Addo-Kufuor also called on the European Union to give preferential treatment to exports from African countries in areas where the latter clearly have relative advantage.

He cited items such as basic furniture, textiles and some processed and semi-processed agricultural produce as examples and intimated that fair trading practices on the part of Europe and the developed world would assist in generating enough resources in African countries to reduce their dependence on aid and loans from external sources for their developmental needs.

Quoting from the UN Secretary-General's report to the millennium summit the Defence Minister drew the participants attention to the main challenge facing the world in ensuring that the fruits of development were shared fairly in order to foster economic growth to alleviate poverty and thereby lessen conflicts in the poor and marginalised societies.

African leaders, he charged, owed it a sacred duty to the people of the continent to provide selfless and exemplary leadership devoid of greed and pursuance of myopic policies if the continent and its people are to escape the vicious cycle of poverty, deprivation and incessant conflicts.

The Defence Minister's address which was highly applauded by all the delegates set the tone for a very comprehensive and critical appraisal of the subject of conflicts in Africa at a follow-up workshop.

Dr Addo-Kufuor who is leading a two-man government delegation is scheduled to travel to Burundi for discussions with the Burundian authorities on the country's peace process and later attend the meeting on the Burundi peace process convened by the former South African President, Mr Nelson Mandela and the South African Defence Minister in Pretoria.

The other member of the delegation is Major-General Seth Obeng, the Chief of Defence Staff. The delegation is due to return home on July 9, 2001.