Cabinet has welcomed the signing of the declaration on the Peer Review Mechanism by 12 countries during the Nepad Heads of State Implementation Committee held in Abuja, Nigeria, over the weekend.

South Africa was one of the countries that inked the declaration.

At its meeting in Cape Town yesterday, Cabinet said steps taken in the operationalisation of the peer review mechanism as a system addressing the interests of the continent, first and foremost, were commendable.

The mechanism is believed to be key to the credibility of the continent's socio-economic revival plan, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), since it empowers African nations to monitor each other's performance.

'While, in the medium-term, African Union (AU) structures will play a critical overarching role in this regard, concrete steps have been taken urgently to develop criteria and indicators for measuring performance on political and economic governance, and to finalise the accession process,' Cabinet said.

The move will start the process of self-assessment on the part of the continent, in the interest of socio-economic development and realising the basic human rights of Africa's people, it said.

Five countries including Botswana, did not sign the declaration arguing they needed more time to study the issue.

It is hoped that those that did not sign would put their signatures when the Committee meets again in February, next year.

Government believes the mechanism is aimed at fostering the adoption of policies, standards and practices that will lead to high rates of investment and economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated regional integration of the continent.

'From the very beginning because it (Peer Review Mechanism) arose out of the Nepad process, it had to deal with those issues which are relevant to a socio-economic programme', President Mbeki said, recently.

AU structures that are envisaged to monitor various governance aspects in the continent include, among others, the Commission on Human Rights and the Pan African Parliament -BuaNews.