PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has invited his Sudanese counterpart Omar el-Bashir to the AU summit on refugees due next week.

Answering questions from journalists at a press conference at State House Entebbe yesterday, Museveni said Bashir had been invited in his capacity as a sitting African president.

Bashir is wanted at The Hague-based International Criminal Court over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Member states are expected to arrest Bashir. African members, including Uganda, have refused to cooperate with the court, saying Bashir's arrest would compromise peace efforts in Darfur.

Museveni said: "Our position in the African security committee was that let us not condemn or condone Bashir."

"We said let us do our own investigations. That's how former South African President Thabo Mbeki was invited to do further research to enable us take our own position," he said.

Museveni said Bashir was free to talk peace with the rebels in his country, at Munyonyo Resort Hotel, where presidents recently launched a symbolic peace hub during the Smart Partnership meeting.

Museveni said the hub means that Uganda can give protection to belligerents to meet and talk.

"The hub means a neutral zone in which we give safe conduit to the belligerents to meet and talk. We cannot turn around and say "you are wanted by the ICC" and we grab you," he said.

In July, the Government had advised Bashir not to attend the Smart Partnership meeting to which he had been invited over his safety.

Museveni at the time explained that the Government had not "locked out" Bahsir, but there were some issues.

"Some people had said in the papers that we invited Gen. Bashir so that he comes and we arrest him. That's not according the culture of the Great Lakes region in Africa here."

"When I want to fight you, I insult you, I don't invite you. I tell you beforehand. We don't believe in surprise attacks," he said.

The court's prosecutor, Moreno Ocampo, was visiting Uganda at about the same time.

At yesterday's press conference, Museveni said he was yet to crosscheck on whether Libyan leader and the chairman of the AU, Muammar Gadaffi, who is expected to open the talks, had confirmed attendance.

The President called the press to explain the the economy.

He said the economy was growing at 7% per annum, despite the global recession.

This, he added, is in spite of the doubling of the population in the last 20 years, from 14.3 million in 1986 to about 31 million.

Exports, including remittances from Ugandans abroad, grew to $4.5b last year, he said.

His priority now, he added, was to "awaken" Ugandan scientists to step up processing as a means to stop Africa from exporting raw materials. He said Makerere University's faculty of food science was doing this.

The exports can increase 10-fold, he added, if all the products are exported in processed form, which would in turn reduce dependence on donor money.

"A new dawn has come for Ugandans in value addition because we have been begging all over the world. But now, our children who have become scientists can do it (processing)."

He said this was the reason the Government sponsors 75% of government students at Makerere to study sciences.

The President also talked about terrorism, which he said had been defeated. He noted that nobody would again destabilise Uganda, and called upon everybody to engage in production.

Commenting on the LRA war, the President said if the rebels fled to Chad, Uganda would work out an arrangement with the Chadian government to pursue them.

He said he was not bothered whether Sudan still supports the group, saying in 1986, Khartoum gave the LRA 11,000 rifles but they were still defeated.

"The safety of Kony is not in fighting but hiding. Whoever gives them guns wants them killed or to use them to kill civilians," he said.

Turning to corruption, Museveni said young people who have finished their masters degrees would sort out the vice.

On Buganda matters, Museveni said he and the Kabaka would soon announce resolutions on the contentious issues.

On the closed radio stations, he said he had given the Kabaka recordings of programmes in which presenters incited masses and promoted sectarianism and genocide.

"You have a duty to enjoy your rights as journalists but also protect the rights of others. Because of our lax way of working, they thought Uganda was a hole of anarchy," he said.

Journalists had expressed concern about the way in which Radio One journalist Kalundi Sserumaga was arrested.

The President said if he was thrown into a car boot, the culprits would be brought to book.

About the stalemate facing the election of a Kyabazinga for Busoga, the President denied supporting any of the factions, saying there were still unresolved issues.

"If we were supporting any, I would have attended the coronation if government is satisfied that one of them has been agreed on.

"We are still studying the situation there because their process needs to be clarified," he said.

On oil, he said it would not be misused to buy champagne and shampoo, but spent on energy, transport infrastructure, education and research to sustain future generations.

On refugees, Museveni said in the Great Lakes region, everybody is a neighbour and should keep one another in times of problems.

"These are our brothers, don't think they are from Spain or France. We just need to regulate their access to resources. They should not start fighting with the indigenous people over land."

The idea of a United States of Africa, he added, was not yet realistic given major differences between Africans, although political federation at regional level was possible.

However, he added, economic integration was desirable.

New Vision (Kampala)