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43 African states sign N-treaty

CAIRO: Forty-three African states on Thursday signed the Treaty of Pelindaba, which declares all Africa to be a zone free of nuclear weapons.

Representatives of the "declared" nuclear states -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- signed protocols giving a commitment to cooperate with the treaty objectives.

Fifty-three African states are eligible to sign the treaty and Egyptian officials said they expected three or four other states to sign later on Thursday when their delegations come.

Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf, whose country comes first alphabetically, was the first to sign the documents at a conference centre in northeastern Cairo.-Reuter