KHARTOUM, 24 Jan 2006 (IRIN) - The Sudanese government has welcomed the election on Tuesday of President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of Congo as chairman of the African Union (AU) for this year.

The election which was announced during an AU Summit for heads of state in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, went against an AU tradition where the host president would be the automatic chair of the pan-African organisation.

'It is not a matter of presidency that concerns Sudan. It is the success of the summit...and the success of the African Union leaders,' Eljahwi Ibrahim Malik, spokesman for the Sudanese government, said.

'We will continue shouldering the responsibility for serving the interests of the summit and the people of Africa,' Malik told IRIN on the sidelines of the summit.

The decision to elect Nguesso, who ruled Congo from 1979 to 1992 and returned to power in a 1997 coup, was made by a seven-member state committee, consisting of Djibouti, Egypt, Botswana, Tanzania, Gabon, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Burkina Faso.

The committee was formed after the summit failed to reach a consensus on the election of Sudanese president Umar al-Bashir during the opening session on Monday.

Some member states had expressed concern that Bashir’s election would damage the organisation's credibility because senior Sudanese officials, including the president, had been implicated in war crimes committed in Darfur.

The AU plays a critical role in the war-torn western Sudanese region, both by mediating between the parties in the conflict and by deploying peacekeeping forces.

As a compromise, the committee decided that Sudan would chair the AU in 2007. Malik said this would take place regardless of the accusations against Bashir and was in no way dependent on a ceasefire in Darfur.

'There are so many conflicts in Africa. The matter of Darfur is not the main obstacle. We have already resolved the problems in the south and we will continue to work to resolve [other] problems in future. We have nothing to be ashamed of,' he said.

'We are Africans, and we should be confident in our leaders. Because unless we give them the power, unless we give them our consent concerning these matters, they cannot lead us,' Malik added.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), however, urged African leaders not to give Sudan the pan-African body's leadership in 2007 'as long as the human rights disaster continues in Darfur'.

'The AU has taken the right decision to reject Sudan’s candidacy this year, but Darfur remains a disaster,' said Peter Takirambudde, HRW's Africa director, in a statement

'If the atrocities in Darfur make Bashir unsuitable to lead Africa this year, it's hard to see how he will be suitable next year unless he takes credible steps to end the crisis in Darfur.'

Sudan, HRW added, should not be given the AU presidency unless it disarms the government-backed Janjawid militias, allows millions of displaced Darfurians to return home in safety and brings those involved in war crimes to justice.

During the summit's opening ceremony, Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigerian president and former chairperson of the AU, said that despite the 7,000 AU personnel currently monitoring a ceasefire in Darfur, the conflict remained of 'deep concern'.

He pointed out that insecurity in the Central African Republic, Somalia and the Ethiopia-Eritrea border issue were unhelpful to the goals of the AU and urged Africans to keep in mind that peace and security were essential for development.