71.   Several African leaders raised the dormant specter of colonialism to blame for continuing poverty and social stress.

72.   Some African leaders are also demanding debt relief and foreign aid without conditions, an idea that most European countries reject.

73.   Some African leaders have said that the continent is simply not yet ready for Western-style electoral systems.

74.   Still, African leaders have peculiar idiosyncracies, from the poetic to the bloodthirsty.

75.   That contrasts with the hostility voiced by some African leaders to other approaches already available.

76.   The ambassadors have met African leaders in Johannesburg, Luanda and Kinshasa, where an ad-hoc regional summit was called by President Kabila.

77.   The African leaders at the OAU meeting will be invited to approve the plan and commit themselves to it.

78.   The African leaders will not meet officially with President Bush, who will address the breakfast gathering but mix with the participants, according to White House officials.

79.   The advance comes at a time when African leaders, mostly silent for nearly two decades, have begun to speak out against AIDS.