Fifty-two African Heads of State are expected in the country to participate in the Ninth Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) scheduled for July 1-3, 2007.

The three day meeting is to determine the future political direction of the AU.

Sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Co-operation and NEPAD told the Daily Graphic that all was set for what had been described as the grand debate on a union government for Africa.

The blocks of flats specifically constructed for the African leaders and their delegations are ready and all efforts are being made by the ministry, spearheaded by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ghana's Foreign Minister, to prevent any last-minute hitches.

At the ministry on Tuesday, top officials held meetings with a delegation from Darfur, Western Sudan, which had come to hold consultations prior to the Executive Council meeting scheduled to be held on June 28, 2007.

At the State House, a large number of people who had arrived to participate in and report on the conference, made up of journalists, politicians, lobbyists and civil society organisations, were being screened and issued with accreditation.

Foreign Ministry officials were tight-lipped on the number of delegates who had registered so far.

Security at the Accra International Conference Centre, the venue of the conference which is also hosting the 14th Ordinary Session of the Permanent Representatives Committee, has been beefed up, with gun-wielding policemen and soldiers subjecting people who sought to enter the precincts to vigorous security checks.

Source: Daily Graphic