AU says must replace Western partners with China

KAMPALA (Reuters) - The African Union said on Saturday Africa must turn ever more to China for its development because conditions and checks often stalled the flow of funds from Western nations and the World Bank.

Maxwell Mkwezalamba, the AU's economic chief, said Africa must end its reliance on Western money.

"For Africa's development and integration we have depended on the Western world -- we cannot continue to proceed like this," Mkwezalamba told reporters.

"We need to diversify our partners that we work with and hence for us, working with China is something that we have welcomed," he said at the AU summit in Uganda.

China pledged last year to give Africa $10 billion in concessional loans over the next three years and it is pouring money into developing infrastructure in many nations on the world's poorest continent.

Some Western nations say China is interested only in extracting Africa's natural resources to feed its fast-growing economy, cares little for African development and supports governments with dubious human rights records.

Rights groups say China, which last year imported $6.3 billion of Sudanese crude oil, has failed to do enough to stop bloodshed in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur and has violated a U.N. arms embargo on the region.

China denies the charges and has appointed its own envoy to try to bring peace to Darfur. China's Foreign Ministry says critics who suggest China is only interested in Africa because of its energy resources are "erroneous and one-sided."

Mkwezalamba said restrictive conditions placed on loans by some of its traditional Western partners and groups such as the World Bank was driving African nations into the arms of China. He did not specify the restrictive conditions.

"By getting support from China and other countries we strengthen our position in dealing with institutions such as the World Bank, which tend to impose huge conditions," he said. "The resources tend to come very slowly."

"They tell you that you are going to get $100 million today but then you don't get the $100 million until after maybe two years because the whole question of processing the loan takes a long time," he said.

Mkwezalamba said Africa's increasing outreach to China in place of traditional development partners would create friction.

"We know that there could be some difficulties that some financial institutions and development institutions may have with some of these partners (like China), but for Africa I think this is the way to go," he said.

Some Chinese commentators say the West still treats Africa like a colony, whereas Beijing's interest is based on mutual economic development.

(Editing by David Clarke)