... Gambia and the UK
... He'll be away for 15 days
PRESIDENT J.A. Kufuor travels to Brazil next week on a state visit, as part of a three-nation tour which begins today.

The Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Ebenezer Sakyi-Hughes, who announced this in Parliament yesterday, said the President will first go to Banjul, the Gambia to attend the 7th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union.

He said the President will return home on Sunday, and then leave on Monday for the United Kingdom where he has been invited to deliver the keynote address at the opening ceremony of the Wilberforce Institute for the study of slavery and emancipation at the University of Hull.

He said President Kufuor will depart from London to Brazil and return to Ghana on July 15.

Kufuor to attend AU Summit in The Gambia

Accra, June 30, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor would leave Accra for Banjul, The Gambia, on Friday afternoon to attend the Seventh Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU).

A statement Mr Andr ew Awuni, Press Secretary to the President, signed said the Summit would discuss the Report of the Peace and Security Council on the state of peace and security on the Continent and that of the Special Summit of the AU on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

It said the two-day Summit, under the theme: "Rationalisation of Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Regional Integration", would also discuss the Ratification of the Convention on the Protection and the Promotion of Diversity of Cultural Expressions According to the statement, a special session would be dedicated to discuss the theme.

The UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Julia Joiner and Congolese President Sassou Nguesso, Chairperson of AU, would address the Heads of State on human rights issues as part of the 25th Anniversary celebrations of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. There would also be the swearing in of Judges of the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and some Senior Government Officials are already in Banul. 30 June 06