DURBAN, South Africa, July 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Close to 50 African heads of state were gathered in Durban, South Africa, Monday, July 8, to open a new era for the continent with the end of the 39-year-old Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the launch of the African Union (A.U.).

A notable absentee was President Marc Ravalomanana of Madagascar, excluded because the OAU considers his win in December elections as illegitimate, even though he has been recognized as head of state by the United States, France, Germany and other western nations, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The final summit of the OAU, formed as African states won their independence, was set to start at 11:00 am (0900 GMT) Monday.

It will be followed Tuesday, July 9, and Wednesday, July 10, by the inaugural summit of the A.U., a body loosely modeled on the European Union which will have a Peace and Security Council authorized to send in a stand-by peacekeeping force drawn from African armies in the event of any conflict involving crimes against humanity.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan will also be at the birth of the A.U. He arrived in Durban late Saturday, and on Sunday held talks with South African President Thabo Mbeki, who will be the first chairman of the A.U.

Long-term goals for the A.U. include the establishment of an African Economic Community in 2023 after regional blocs are integrated, and, eventually, a common African currency.

The launch of the A.U. comes within a year of that of NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, which promises good governance in exchange for more aid and trade opportunities from industrialized countries.

“NEPAD is a program of the A.U., and it must be overseen by the A.U.,” South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told AFP Sunday, July 7.

African leaders say they want to end the “begging bowl” syndrome and approach the West as equal partners.

Most Africans live in deploring conditions without proper sanitation or drinking water, existing on a dollar or two a day - in many cases less than they were earning in the 1980s.

The continent is ravaged by AIDS, malaria, and periodic famines.

Home to 800 million people, it has just one percent of the world’s internet users, and no more telephones between them than the 26 million citizens of Tokyo.

Central to the A.U.’s vision for NEPAD is a peer review system of African governments to ensure that they adhere to democratic principles and sound economic policies.

At question here however is whether it will be the A.U. who polices its member states in this regard, or an external body like the United Nation’s Economic Commission for Africa.

South Africa is in favor of the latter, but Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade raised concerns about this Sunday.

"Will it work, this is the question. I think it will far better to have regional peer review," he told AFP.

Heads of state making up the NEPAD implementation committee met in Durban Sunday and decided that the document which states will sign if they want to take part should be drafted by the end of August, Wiseman Nkhulu, the chairman of the NEPAD secretariat, said.

Foreign minister who have been meeting in Durban since July 1 to prepare the summit will make around 50 recommendations to the heads of state, secretariat sources said.

One is that the summit should maintain the OAU’s hard line on Madagascar - excluding it from the meeting because the OAU rejects the December election victory of President Marc Ravalomanana.

But the ministers are pointedly making no recommendations on Zimbabwe, despite declarations by many countries outside Africa that presidential elections there in March were rigged in favour of incumbent Robert Mugabe.

On Angola, where a 27-year civil war has just ended, the ministers will recommend that all funds stashed abroad by the rebel UNITA movement be confiscated to pay for reconstruction, the sources said.

The new pan-African body is the brainchild of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, who has offered to host the A.U. headquarters.