BEIJING, July 3 -- The African Union (AU) started its 13th summit in Sirte, Libya on Wednesday, with top agenda of investing in agriculture for economic growth and food security.

    Addressing the opening ceremony of the summit, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Asha-Rose Migiro said more than half of all Africans currently live in extreme poverty, calling on African leaders to "use this summit to mobilize action to protect the poorest and most vulnerable and prevent more from joining their ranks."

    She underlined the importance in investing in agriculture, saying it creates jobs and "It can make economic growth more durable. And it can increase food and nutritional security."

    "African ministers rightly called for a sustainable green revolution earlier this year in Windhoek," she said, noting that every African country should have "a national strategy for agricultural development" and live up to its pledge to raise agricultural spending to 10 percent of the national budget.

    The opening ceremony of the three-day summit was presided by Libyan leader Muammar Khaddafi, who is currently rotating chairperson of the AU.

    Arab League (AL) chief Amr Moussa said in his address to the summit that the choice of the agriculture development and food security as the theme of this summit is a "wise response to Africa's real needs."

    In the past two years, the AU and AL experts have conducted research on joint plans in agriculture and food security, and "we are working towards holding an AL-AU agriculture ministerial meeting to hammer out these plans," said Msoussa.

    The 13th summit was previously scheduled for July in the Indian Ocean island country of Madagascar. But due to its political stalemate, Madagascar was suspended the AU membership in March and later cancelled the hosting of the three-day summit.

    The AU, established in 2002 to replace the Organization of African Unity that was founded in 1963, aimed at preserving and promoting peace and stability in the African continent, carrying out the strategy of reform and poverty reduction and realizing the development and renewal of Africa.

    Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Sirte, Libya.

    (Source: XHTV)