Lisbon - European and African leaders agreed Saturday on the importance of human rights, but seemed unable to bring their positions on key issues closer together at the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon. "Good governance and the respect for human rights are fundamental to the achievement" of prosperity, South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki told 26 European and 53 African leaders.
"There are no specific European or African human rights... Human rights are universally valid and indivisible," German Chancellor Angela Merkel replied, on behalf of the European states.
But beyond those statements, their opinions on key issues - most especially the ongoing human-rights crises in Zimbabwe and Sudan - seemed to highlight the wide gap between the two continents.
European and African states have regularly clashed over the issue of human rights, with African states viewing EU criticism as post- colonial interference, and the EU seeing the African side as too eager to support unacceptable regimes.
Saturday's talks were intended to launch a new tone in the dialogue between the continents.
But they looked more likely to reinforce the old one as Mbeki focused on the achievements of African states in approving key human- rights documents such as the Constitutive Act of the African Union, and avoided any mention of crisis states such as Zimbabwe.
"We believe we have established the policy positions we need to address the challenge of governance and human rights on our continent... By far the biggest challenge we face in terms of implementing our programmes is the issue of resources," he said.
The impression that the two sides have moved no closer together was reinforced as Merkel, in her reply, singled out Sudan and Zimbabwe as cases of particular concern.
"Sadly, the reality often seems to be that we have to be witnesses of bad rule and the abuse of human rights... The current state of Zimbabwe damages the image of the new Africa," she said, before mentioning Sudan as another case of bad rule.
And it received further confirmation when Senegal's President Maitre Abdoulaye Wade told journalists that Merkel's speech had been based on poor information.
"Sadly, most of her information is not exact," Wade said.
The summit between the European and African Unions, which began with a concert on Friday evening, is set to discuss a sweeping range of issues, from climate change to democratic governance.
All 53 heads of government of the AU, the leaders of 26 out of 27 EU member states and top officials from the EU and AU bureaucracies are attending the meeting, which is the first in seven years and only the second such summit ever.
Their talks began with ten presentations on key areas for future cooperation: peace and security, good governance and human rights, energy and climate change, trade, and migration.
One leader from each side made a presentation on each issue. Alongside Merkel and Mbeki, Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Omar Bongo Ondimba of Gabon opened the talk on peace and security.
Wade and Romano Prodi of Italy discussed trade - another sensitive issue, as some African states accuse the EU of trying to force them into unfair deals.
Jose Zapatero of Spain and Moamer Gaddafi of Libya spoke on the issue of migration, with Zapatero proposing a new pact between Africa and Europe on the issue. Spain is one of the EU states worst hit by illegal migration.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda talked on energy.
