Gaddafi 'aims to hijack' African Union organisation

The Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, is using his country's oil wealth to buy influence across Africa, according to diplomats, in an attempt to dominate the African Union (AU), due to be launched in South Africa next month.

Colonel Gaddafi sees the AU, modelled on the European Union, as his brainchild. Officials are saying he wants to use it as a power base to propagate his views on politics. Thabo Mbeki, the President of South Africa, who is keen to preserve the credibility of the AU for Western donors, was in Tripoli yesterday in a diplomatic offensive to stop the Libyan leader from scuppering the Union's launch.

Nelson Mandela, Mr Mbeki's predecessor, is also involved. Diplomats say Mr Mandela's decision to visit the Libyan jailed in Scotland for the Lockerbie bombing before Mr Mbeki's trip to Libya was part of the initiative to appease Colonel Gaddafi. Mr Mandela called for the Libyan to be transferred to serve his prison term in a Muslim country.

Mr Mbeki fears Colonel Gaddafi's bid to control the AU will derail the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad), which is backed by Tony Blair and other G8 leaders and is due to be an AU project. Under Nepad, countries adhering to democracy and good governance will receive aid from richer countries in addition to other concessions.

The Libyan leader has deployed several diplomats to lobby African countries to delay the Durban ceremony because he wants the AU to be launched in Sirte, Libya. That would automatically give him the chairmanship of the AU.

Colonel Gaddafi wants the Durban meeting downgraded to an annual summit of OAU leaders pending the launch of the AU in Libya at a later stage. But diplomats attending an OAU-Civil Society summit here say his ambitions will sabotage any programmes intended to help Africa's recovery.

"Mbeki knows that any move to put the AU under Gaddafi will immediately kill both the AU and Nepad because no Western country will pour aid into a programme or institution run by Gaddafi," said one diplomat.

Another diplomat said: "Gaddafi sees Nepad as Mbeki's project with the West, and if he [Gaddafi] were to assume the reins of power at the AU, then the whole programme is dead and buried."

Colonel Gaddafi has been unrelenting in his bid to buy influence and scupper the launch. OAU officials said he has paid off the arrears of about six African countries, enabling them to regain voting powers in the OAU, after they were suspended for non-payment of subscriptions. Other diplomats said he had acted for up to as many as a dozen countries.

The Libyan leader's money does not come without strings attached, however. A West African diplomat who refused to have his name or that of his country published said: "We made a deal with Libya whereby we would support and vote for all resolutions proposed by Mr Gaddafi at OAU summits in exchange for his help."