(ACCRA) - European leaders pledged Tuesday to open a new era in relations with Africa, announcing plans for heads of state of the two continents to hold a joint summit every other year.

EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose government took over the European Union's rotating presidency for six months on Sunday, told an African Union summit that Europe had not worked hard enough to build relations between the two continents.

Barroso said that a major EU-Africa summit being held in Lisbon in December should become a regular event.

Similar summits would be held "every two years, alternating between the two continents," Barroso told the final day of the three-day summit.

Barroso, a former Portuguese prime minister, said that the two continents had major issues which were of common concern such as global warming and immigration.

"I believe that it's important that the political leaders on both sides meet and discuss these matters in a really open manner," he said.

Socrates, who will host December's summit, said the seven-year gap since the last such gathering must not be repeated.

"This is a great shortcoming in the foreign policy of the EU and this has affected Europeans and Africans together," he told his fellow heads of state.

"It (the Lisbon summit) represents a new starting point in the relations between the two continents. Our desire is that the Lisbon summit will allow for a new strategic relationship."

Socrates said the two continents shared common beliefs on issues such as human rights and democracy.

"Europe and Africa have a common vision on the various problems that we face. It's necessary to have a political partnership which will allow us to address these issues."

The AU summit has been devoted to working out how Africa can forge a closer union with many regarding the EU as a model of integration.

Barroso said the EU's experience had been of pursuing economic integration first, which had in turn led to greater political integration.

"If you cannot sell your goods to your neighbour then you cannot sell your ideas," he said.

"I am not suggesting that you should follow it (the EU model), you should find your own ways of doing it.

"I really feel it's very important for us to exchange our experiences. We (in the EU) are always discussing what should be the model of integration.

"It's not been easy for Europe, but going by the European experience, the effort has been worth it."

The high-level delegation reflects a realisation that Europe's influence over countries that were once its colonies is on the wane and also comes at a time when China is deepening its ties with the continent.

Beijing hosted a summit with African leaders in November 2006 when it pledged to double its aid to the continent and to offer five billion dollars in loans and credits by 2009.

China is also building railways and other basic infrastructure in Africa, and hopes to open up a big market for cheap products.

The EU's Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel, who was also in Accra, said earlier this week Europe must rethink the way it treated Africa as its "charitable or paternalistic approach" was not working and had to end.

Barroso acknowledged that Europe must be wary of patronising Africa.

"I will not accept a situation where EU-African relations are only based on a donor to recipient relationship," he said.

Ghanaian President John Kufuor, host of the Accra summit, told his two guests said that African leaders shared a desire "to work through dialogue" with Europe and many would travel to Lisbon at the end of the year.

9th African Union Summit

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