In his state of the nation address, the president told a sitting of both houses of Parliament he was heartened by the sense of urgency in Africa about implementing the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad).
"Within weeks, the Nepad implementation committee will finalise criteria, standards, institutions and legal instruments for the peer review mechanism, pending the setting up of relevant institutions within the African Union (AU)."
Mbeki, who is also the chairman of the newly-formed AU, said considerable progress was made last year to translate Nepad into concrete projects.
Work was continuing in various regions of the continent to identify and start implementing projects that would give practical meaning to Africa's renewal, he said.
Nepad hopes to rejuvenate Africa's economy through partnerships with developed nations, and billions of US dollars in investment, trade and debt relief.
The peer review mechanism will be used to evaluate participating country's economic policies and adherence to good governance, and the AU agreed earlier this month to establish a Peace and Security Council to help resolve conflicts wracking the continent.
Mbeki restated South Africa's resolve to continue working with Zimbabwe to find solutions to the problems afflicting that country.
"We hope that sooner rather than later, these solutions will be found through dialogue among the leaders of this neighbouring country."
He also hoped that efforts at constitutional reform in the Kingdom of Swaziland would soon bear fruit.
Swaziland is Africa's only remaining monarchy, while Zimbabwe has been hit by years of political and economic turmoil, partly due to the government's land reform policies.
Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo are set to break ranks with the third member of a Commonwealth troika, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, and call for Zimbabwe's suspension from the organisation to be lifted.
Robert Mugabe's government was suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth following a flawed presidential election in 2002- Sapa.
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