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Chavez calls on Africans to join south-south cooperation
AFP
BANJUL
Petroleumworld.com 07 02 06
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Saturday called on African leaders to join with Latin America in "south-south" cooperation, especially in oil and banking, to escape from what he called foreign domination.
"I believe this century could be that of Africa, Latin America, South-East Asia and the Arabs," said Chavez, guest of an African Union (AU) summit here.
"The 19th century was the century of the liberation of Latin America...the 20th century was the century of the liberation of Africa...we should now approach the 21st century togther," he told the assembly in Banjul, capital of Gambia.
"In order not to be dependent or reduced to slavery and colonised... Latin America and South-East Asia, together with the Palestinians, Iran and Africa should show solidarity in the face of imperialism," said Chavez, a fiery anti-US populist.
The Venezuelan leader also called on the AU to consider joining in setting up a coordination body to launch transnational oil projects.
He also proposed such ideas as a "television of the South", a development bank of the South and a university of the South.
More than 50 African heads of state met in Gambia Saturday at a six-monthly summit aimed at pursuing regional integration but overshadowed by conflicts in the Darfur region of Sudan and in Somalia.
AFP 01 1925 GMT 07 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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