The proposed African Union (AU) government is a long-term goal and cannot be "decreed" into being, President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Friday.

Addressing the National House of Traditional Leaders in Cape Town, he said the AU government had been one of the issues discussed at the AU heads of state and government summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, earlier this month.

"Our position on this matter is that an African Union government is a long-term goal which must be the culmination of a process driven by regional economic communities," he said.

"In this regard, our efforts should be directed at the strengthening of SADC [Southern African Development Community], because such a government ought to be banned rather than decreed into being.

"I am happy that those of our traditional leaders who were invited to meetings in Libya and asked to support proposals that had not been sufficiently canvassed across our nation and other nations of our continent, were able to articulate South Africa's position and refused to be party to initiatives that would be contrary to the interests of our country," Motlanthe said.