Africa: 'Cancel Africa's debt', says AU

The head of the African Union commission appealed Friday to newly elected United States President George W Bush to listen more closely to Africa, especially on problems of managing the continent's vast debt problem. Alpha Oumar Konare, head of the executive body of the AU, which replaced the ineffective Organisation of African Unity in 2002, said at his headquarters here: "Africa today needs new resources that cannot be provided any longer according to the old recipes...we have to put an end to head-in-the-sand policies and grasp the need for new ways of debt management."