MALABO (AFP) – The African Union has condemned the flow of arms into Libya after France admitted air-dropping weapons to rebels fighting to oust Moamer Kadhafi.

AU Commission chairman Jean Ping made the criticism on the eve of a two-day summit of African Union leaders trying to mediate an end to the four-month conflict as rebel fighters backed by NATO strikes advance on Tripoli.

“What worries us is not who is giving what,” Ping said in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, where the summit kicks off later Thursday.

“It is simply that these weapons are being given by all parties to all the other parties. These weapons are already reaching Al-Qaeda, drug dealers and traffickers. They will be used to destabilise African states and to kidnap tourists for whom you pay ransom,” he said.

The arms deliveries could backfire on the governments who supply them.

“If these arms are found in the desert it is a problem for everybody, for you (Westerners) as well. The people who are being kidnapped (by terrorists) are Westerners,” said Ping.

France acknowledged Wednesday it has been air-dropping weapons to Berber tribal fighters southwest of the capital, insisting the move was not in breach of a UN arms embargo as they were mainly light firearms to help civilians protect themselves.

Colonel Thierry Burkhard, spokesman for the French general staff, told AFP that France had become aware in early June that rebel-held Berber villages in the Nafusa mountains had come under pressure from Kadhafi loyalists after joining the revolt against the strongman's four-decade rule.

“We began by dropping humanitarian aid: food, water and medical supplies,” he said. “During the operation, the situation for the civilians on the ground worsened. We dropped arms and means of self-defence, mainly ammunition.”

Burkhard described the arms as “light infantry weapons of the rifle type” and said the drops were carried out over several days “so that civilians would not be massacred.”

The French ambassador to the United Nations, Gerard Araud, said his country's delivery of arms to the rebels was not in breach of a Security Council resolution that established an arms embargo to Libya.

“We decided to provide self-defence weapons to the civilian populations because we considered these populations were under threat,” he told reporters.

France's Le Figaro daily, citing a secret intelligence memo and well-placed officials, said the weapons were meant to help rebels encircle Tripoli and encourage a popular revolt in the city itself.

The crates contained assault rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, it said, along with European-made Milan anti-tank missiles.

Britain's minister for international security strategy, Gerald Howarth, said London would not emulate France's move because that would raise “quite a few issues,” including with the UN resolution that authorised military action in Libya.

The Security Council adopted Resolution 1970 in February and Resolution 1973 in March on the conflict in Libya. These resolutions imposed severe sanctions on the Kadhafi regime, notably the embargo of arms supplies to Libya and demanded the protection of civilian populations.

Article 4 of Resolution 1973 specified that allowances to the arms embargo can be allowed if in the interest of protecting civilians.

“We do think the United Nations resolutions allow, in certain limited circumstances, defensive weapons to be provided but the UK is not engaged in that. Other countries will interpret the resolution in their own way,” said Howarth.

France has taken a leading role in organising international support for the uprising against Kadhafi's rule, and French and British jets are spearheading the NATO-led air campaign targeting his forces.

In Malabo, African heads of state tasked with finding a solution to the fighting met late into the night Wednesday after announcing at the weekend that Kadhafi had agreed to not take part in negotiations.

They were likely to insist on their roadmap out of the conflict after the summit opens at 0900 GMT, following AU criticism of the supply of arms and an international arrest warrant for Kadhafi, and complaints about the NATO air war.

The roadmap includes humanitarian aspects, a ceasefire, an inclusive and consensual transition and political reforms, African Union peace commission commissioner Ramtame Lamamra told AFP.

A delegation from the rebels' Transitional National Council, which has rejected talks unless Kadhafi quits, is also at the meeting.

The African Union's refusal to publicly back calls for the continent's longest ruler to step down is part of its diplomacy of persuasion that could be undermined by bold statements against him, a diplomat said.

But there is division among the delegates with some firmly backing the man who has funded many African causes, from conflicts to development, and held the rotating presidency of the African Union just two years ago.

Others say it is time for him to go. “He has to leave. No one wants to say it because he has financed more than one of them,” said a member of one delegation on condition of anonymity.

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France is said to be concerned at the military stalemate in Libya

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Libya Crisis

The story so far

Tide turning against Gaddafi?

Gaddafi's own goal

Misrata rebels call for help

African Union Commission chief Jean Ping says France's decision to air-drop weapons to Libyan rebels is dangerous and puts the whole region at risk.

He told the BBC the action risked creating problems similar to those in war-torn Somalia.

France has confirmed it dropped arms to Berber tribal fighters in the mountains south-west of the capital, Tripoli.

Some analysts said the move might contravene the UN Security Council embargo on arms supplies to Libya.

Mr Ping was speaking from Equatorial Guinea where African heads of state are to meet on Thursday for an AU summit.

Libya is expected to be high on the summit's agenda.

“There are several problems,” he said.

“The risk of civil war, risk of partition of the country, the risk of Somalia-sation of the country, risk of having arms everywhere… with terrorism.

“These risks will concern the neighbouring countries.”

Mr Ping said that an AU peace plan for Libya set out in March was still valid. The road map calls for a ceasefire to allow political talks to take place.

News of France's weapons delivery to the rebels emerged in a report by Le Figaro newspaper on Wednesday.

The newspaper said France – a leading force in the Nato operation in Libya – did not inform its allies about the move.

Fears of stalemate

The report said the weapons included rocket launchers and anti-tank missiles, although French officials would only confirm light arms and ammunition had been dropped to rebel fighters.

The decision was reportedly taken after a meeting in April between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Chief of Staff of the Libyan rebels, Gen Abdelfatah Younis.

France is said to have been concerned at the stalemate in the Libyan conflict that started in February.

Rebels have recently been making gains and hope to advance on Tripoli from the existing front line on the other side of the Nafusa mountains about 65km (40 miles) from the capital.

Russia and China have criticised the Nato campaign, saying it has gone beyond the remit of UN resolution 1973, which authorised international military action in Libya.

However, the US has argued that resolution 1973 allows countries to provide arms to rebels despite an earlier resolution – 1970 – that imposed an arms embargo on the whole of Libya.

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RABAT (AFP) – Morocco entered the final day of campaigning Thursday for a referendum on curbing the near absolute powers of King Mohammed VI, who has offered reforms in the wake of pro-democracy uprisings in the Arab world.

Faced with protests modelled on the Arab Spring uprisings that ousted long-serving leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, Mohammed VI announced the referendum this month to devolve some of his wide-ranging powers to the prime minister and parliament.

Under a new draft constitution to be voted on Friday, the king would remain head of state, the military, and the Islamic faith in Morocco, but the prime minister, chosen from the largest party elected to parliament, would take over as head of the government.

Mohammed VI, who in 1999 took over the Arab world's longest-serving dynasty, offered the reforms after the youth-based February 20 Movement organised weeks of pro-reform protests that brought thousands to the streets.

The reforms fall short of the full constitutional monarchy many protesters were demanding and the movement has urged its supporters to boycott Friday's vote.

The reform plan has been hailed abroad, however, with the European Union saying it “signals a clear commitment to democracy”.

The country's three biggest political parties — the Justice and Development Party, an Islamist formation; the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP); and the conservative Istiqlal party — have also urged their supporters to vote “yes”.

The February 20 movement has continued to hold protests, organised through websites such as Facebook and YouTube, since the reforms were announced and maintains they do not go far enough.

The movement has already called another demonstration for Sunday.

Analysts say there is little doubt the new constitution will be approved and the brief referendum campaign has been dominated by the “yes” side, with few signs of an organised “no” vote movement.

Thousands of supporters also took to the streets in major cities including Rabat and Casablanca on Sunday to back the reforms.

Along with changes granting the prime minister more executive authority, the new constitution would reinforce the independence of the judiciary and enlarge parliament's role.

It would also remove a reference to the king as “sacred”, though he would remain “Commander of the Faithful” and it would say that “the integrity of the person of the king should not be violated.”

The new constitution would also make Berber an official language along with Arabic — the first time a North African country has granted official status to the region's indigenous language. According to the 2004 census, 8.4 million of Morocco's 31.5 million people speak one of the three main Berber dialects.

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KHARTOUM (AFP) – North and south Sudan agreed Wednesday to set up a demilitarised buffer zone along their border days before the country splits, the African Union said, but no truce has yet been reached in South Kordofan.

Wednesday's accord, signed in Addis Ababa and overseen by the chief African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki, requires both sides to withdraw their forces 10 kilometres (six miles) on either side of the border before the formal independence of the south on July 9, an AU statement read.

“The agreement … is another building block for ensuring stability and unhindered development along the common border between north and south Sudan,” the statement said.

Unarmed observers from both sides will work with UN observers to make sure the agreement is observed, and scattered checkpoints will be manned by Ethiopian peacekeepers.

This follows a recent agreement for the north to pull its troops out of the contested Abyei region, and a deal signed on Tuesday in which the two sides pledged to resolve their differences in the northern state of South Kordofan, where government forces are battling pro-south militia.

But Nafie Ali Nafie, Sudan's top presidential adviser and a signatory to Tuesday's framework accord, told reporters in Khartoum on his return from negotiations in Ethiopia that no ceasefire has been agreed.

“We didn't agree on stopping the hostilities in South Kordofan. But we have created a joint military committee that is going to meet in Addis Ababa next week,” he said.

The conflict in Sudan's central border region has dramatically escalated tensions between north and south in the run-up to southern independence.

Although reliable casualty figures are hard to obtain because of heavy restrictions on the movement of UN agencies and non-governmental organisations, diplomats say the numbers could run into the hundreds.

Nafie said that despite the agreement to establish a demilitarised buffer zone, the two parties have yet to finalise the demarcation of the border itself, which is more than 2,000 kilometres long and remains disputed in a number of places.

On Monday, the UN Security Council ordered a 4,200-strong Ethiopian peacekeeping force to Abyei to monitor the withdrawal of northern troops who occupied the disputed border region on May 21.

On the sensitive issue of citizenship after the country divides, Nafie said the two sides agreed to a nine-month transitional period to allow southerners living in the north and northerners in the south “to settle their situations.”

“For the the southerners that want to work in the private sector in the north, they will have to get permission and residency permits,” he added.

Millions of southerners fled to Khartoum during the devastating 22-year civil war between the northern government and ex-southern rebel army the SPLA that ended in 2005.

While many have returned to the south since last year, hundreds of thousands remain in the north, with its better job opportunities, but there have been growing concerns about their citizenship and employment rights.

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