South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the outgoing chairpersonof the African Union's (AU) executive council yesterday told her successor, Mozambique's Leonard Simao, that the Pan African Parliament and the continent's regional economic blocks were key to the continent's development prospects.

Addressing the Third Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union in Maputo, Mozambique, the minister said the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) was critical to the evolution of common shared values on our continent and would connect the African electorate directly with the work of the AU.

"We should not and cannot postpone this urgent task any longer," she said.

The AU also had to pay urgent attention to the integration of the continent.

"The political and economic integration of the continent is no longer an option but is an imperative. Our populations collectively form a huge market, but individually we are tiny insignificant markets.

If we develop together in an integrated fashion we will become significant, both politically and economically," she said.

"We need the re-organisation of the regional economic communities, transforming them into the vibrant backbone of the AU to implement the delicate socio-economic development of the continent," Dlamini-Zuma added.

"Claiming the right to determine our own future must also mean developing the capacity to deal with our own problems, especially in so far as the resolution of African conflicts are concerned.

In this regard, the operationalisation of the Peace and Security Council is imperative; we must ensure that this Protocol enters into force.

Therefore, ratification is paramount together with the development of the Common Defence and Security Policy, which shall provide the guidelines that determine the actions of the Peace and Security Council.

In light of the problems that confront us, we must conclude this work as soon as possible," Dlamini-Zuma told an audience including Mozambican prime minister Pascoal Mocumbi and AU interim chairman Amara Essy.

Dlamini-Zuma said that 27 AU member states still needed to ratify protocols to establish the Peace and Security Council and the Pan African Parliament.

Only seven countries had signed up thus far.

Five more countries were expected to join this week.

The AU executive council of ministers' meeting is a prelude to this week's three-day AU heads of state summit.

After chairing the AU for a year, President Thabo Mbeki is expected to hand over the reigns to Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano at the heads of state summit, which begins on Thursday in Maputo.

Dlamini-Zuma returns to South Africa tomorrow ahead of US President George Bush scheduled visit.

Bush arrives in South Africa tomorrow night.

The OAU, which was created in 1963 to secure the independence of African countries, has in the post-colonial era been replaced by the AU, which seeks, amongst other things, to unite African people. – Sapa.