GADDAFI WARNS EU OVER AFRICAN TRADE

TRIPOLI: Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi has warned the European Union that Africa will turn to other trade partners if the EU kept trying to dictate to the continent how it should develop, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Gaddafi's warning, at an EU-Africa summit attended by senior European officials, on Monday echoed complaints from some other African leaders who said Europe was trying to make them open their borders to trade but not giving enough in return.

'Our choice now is to cooperate with our brothers in the European Union but if that cooperation fails, Africa has other choices,' Gaddafi said in opening remarks at the summit in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

'Africa can look to any other international bloc such as Latin America, China, India or Russia,' he added.

A leaked internal document from the African Union this month showed some governments on the continent felt that trade deals being offered by the EU were one-sided.

It said the bloc was asking African countries to liberalise their economies to comply with World Trade Organisation rules but was not doing enough to help them develop their own economies.