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DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegal's leader proposed the creation of a new African state to resettle Haitians left homeless by an earthquake, comparing the idea to the 1948 birth of the state of Israel.

Seizing on an outpouring of African pity for the plight of tens of thousands of Haitians still awaiting aid, President Abdoulaye Wade said their history as the descendants of slaves gave them the right to a new life on the continent.

"All we are saying is that the Haitians didn't take themselves over there. They are there because of slavery, five centuries of slavery," Wade told Reuters TV on Monday.

"We have to offer them the chance to come to Africa, that is my idea. They have as much right to Africa as I have," he said of his proposal, which became public over the weekend and is now due to be submitted to the 53-nation African Union.

Wade has long profiled himself as a defender of the poor on the world stage. Critics say he has a populist streak and his schemes do not always materialise, but the 83-year-old leader brushed off the doubters.

"Israel was created like that," he said of the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine following World War Two and the mass extermination of Europe's Jews in Nazi death camps.

"You can't tell me it's not possible. It's all possible if the Haitians seek it," said Wade, who was speaking on the margins of a conference in the Senegalese capital Dakar.

Senegal is due to submit a resolution to the African Union urging the creation for Haitians of "their own state on African territory, the land of their ancestors", according to the text of the resolution published in local newspapers.