ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The 14th summit of the African Union (AU) concluded here on Tuesday with African leaders pledging that they would take concrete measures to development Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the continent.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, the current chairperson of the Assembly of the African Union, Bingu Wa Mutharika said the summit was concluded on schedule, with concrete agreements on actions that the African countries need to take to move the continent from poverty to prosperity.

Bingu Wa Mutharika, the president of Malawi, said during the three-day summit, the participants discussed critical issues that affect the continent, and he is more than convinced that the African countries will place ICT as a vehicle for driving Africa's development agenda.

The chairperson said Africa has a lot of development priorities areas, requiring energy and focus of the African countries. "To begin with we must put in place a robust Food Security Program to eliminate hunger within the next five years, and that no child in Africa dies of hunger and malnutrition anymore."

"We should also develop our transport and communication infrastructure to connect all our eight regions as a basis for integrating our continent."

"We must take urgent steps to develop our energy generation capacity to make electricity more affordable and available to industries and our people."

He said it is his expectation that the Commission will act without delay and comp up with a Plan of Action. "We should act now, for there is no time for Africa to waste."

"This year we celebrated 2010 as the Year of Peace and Security. Such a noble theme can only find meaning when we, collectively and individually, dedicate our efforts to finding solutions to the remaining political crises on the continent.

"During this Year of Peace and Security, we should continue to invest a lot in efforts to attain peace and security on the continent," the chairperson said.

While celebrating positive news in Mauritania, Guinea, and Guinea Bissau, the African countries should together remain seized with the outstanding challenges in Madagascar, Somalia and Sudan's Darfur to ensure that peace returns to these troubled spots in the shortest time possible.

"We should remain steadfast to use all means at our disposal, as an organization, to resolve intractable situations and restore peace everywhere."

"In this year of Peace and Security, and beyond, we must say 'never again' to conflict and war in Africa. We must declare war on unconstitutional change of government on the African oil, and resolve to take strong and necessary punitive action against all authors of coups d'etat and those that provide them the means to unseat duly elected governments," he said.

The chairperson said unconstitutional change of government threatens the cherished peace and security on the continent, and it also reverses the collective successes in the democratization process on the African continent.

"We have a responsibility, in this regard, to protect and preserve this cherished legacy of a free, democratic society, with full guarantees for human rights, personal liberties and social progress."

Bingu Wa Mutharika reiterated the need for AU to go beyond making decisions, declarations and resolutions.

"The need to take actions now is urgent so that whatever we decide and declare directly benefits the common African citizen."

The three-day summit was held under the theme "Information and Communication Technologies in Africa: Challenges and prospects for Development".

During the summit, the African leaders also focused their discussions on climate change, peace and security in the continent and the unconstitutional government changes in some of the African countries, among others.

Regarding ICTs, the African leaders reached consensus that ICTs is one of the necessary tools that can help African countries to realize development goal.

They also recognized that the building and improvement of ICTs infrastructure is the prerequisite for the African countries to develop the ICTs sector.

The next AU summit will be held in Uganda in July this year.