( dpa ) - More than 40 African leaders are set to begin the 10th African Union (AU) summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa Thursday, with the political crisis and ethnic violence in Kenya set to be the centre of discussions.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, who is accused by the opposition of stealing last month's vote, is in Addis Ababa for the three-day meeting that is also set to touch on the conflicts in Darfur and Somalia.
AU chairman Alpha Oumar Konare has called on the pan-African organization to help solve the quagmire, even as former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan is in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to kick off formal mediation between the two sides.
The theme of the 10th summit is industrialization in Africa, but Kenya, seen as an island of stability in a sea of regional turbulence, is likely to dominate the talks.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is set to speak to the congress and is expected to call for a political resolution to the conflict which has spiraled into bitter ethnic violence that has left more than 800 dead and displaced at least 250,000.
He is also set to meet Sudanese President Omar Beshir over the much-awaited 26,000 hybrid peacekeeping force, whose deployment, expected for this month, has been delayed.