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AFP
Africa saw good economic results in 2011 with average growth of between 5.5 percent and 6.0 percent, African Union (AU) Commission chairman Jean Ping said on a visit to Libya on Monday.

"Africa progressed on average between five and a half and six percent. We are nearly at six percent, and seven countries are between seven and 11 percent," he told AFP on his first trip to Tripoli since Moamer Kadhafi's fall.

"The news is good, not to say excellent, at a time when the world is going through difficult times," Ping said.

"Hope is returning, to the extent that some are calling Africa the continent of the future."

On the political level, Ping said 2011 was a difficult year for Africa, citing the conflicts in Libya, Ivory Coast and Somalia, as well as humanitarian crisis caused by the drought in the Horn of Africa.

The AU only recognised Libya's new leaders in September, after having failed to assert itself as a mediator in the conflict between rebels and Kadhafi, who was a founder of the pan-Arab organisation.

The rebels, who had the support of NATO, turned down AU appeals for dialogue with the Kadhafi regime.

Ping said inter-African commerce would be the theme of the next AU summit from January 28 to 30 in Addis Ababa, when he will again be a candidate for the post of commission chairman.

The theme "is important because the three determining factors for progress in Africa are foreign investment, commerce and aid," he said.

"In the current difficult climate aid will diminish, leaving only investment and commerce."

Ping lamented the fact that business in Africa was "carried out mainly outside the continent."

"This commerce is based primarily on raw materials. We must change this and boost inter-African trade," estimated currently at less than 10 percent, Ping said.