LOME, Jan. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) re-elected Nigerien President Mamadou Tandja chairman of the regional group at its one-day summit that opened Thursday in Niamey, capital of Niger.

    At their 29th summit, ECOWAS leaders also re-appointed Executive Secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas for a second four-year term, according to a communique reaching here.

    The leaders agreed to transform the Executive Secretariat into a commission composed of its chief, deputy chief and seven other members. The transformation was intended for strengthening the basic functions of ECOWAS.

    The summit, among others, called for strict control of administrative costs to ensure the funding of ECOWAS programs.

    One of the concrete steps adopted at the summit was a GSM Roaming and Cross-Border Connectivity program based on the use of a single SIM card in all member states to improve telecommunications services in the sub-region.

    The program was launched in January 2003, when the ECOWAS Council of Ministers met in Dakar, Senegal, to mandate the Executive Secretariat to explore the feasibility of establishing aregion-wide GSM Roaming facility.

    Other decisions made at the summit included the creation of a regional airline and follow-up efforts since the 2005 summit to develop agriculture and provide enough food for the region.

    Presidents Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali, Joao Bernardo Vieira of Guinea Bissau, Faure Gnassingbe of Togo, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria andhost Tandja are the top leaders attending the summit, while the other countries were represented either by their prime ministers or foreign ministers.

    ECOWAS, with its headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, was established in 1975 to promote economic integration, peace and stability in the most impoverished region in the world. Enditem