African leaders have agreed on an ambitious set of yardsticks by which the continent can gauge its own performance on good governance and economic reform.

The aim is to underpin the promises which constitute Africa's side of the deal on the proposed "Marshall Plan for Africa" - the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad).

	What is NEPAD? New Partnership for African Development Seeks $64bn a year funds for Africa Brain-child of South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki Launch set for G8 meeting in June  Click here for more

If the plan gets off the ground, the hope is to generate $64bn in inward investment a year, boosting continent-wide annual economic growth to 7%.

At a summit in Nigeria on Tuesday, 21 African states agreed on a communique which proposed eight draft codes of behaviour to be judged by an independent, credible African institute "separate from the political process and structures".

The African Peer Review Mechanism, as it has been dubbed, should make sure "that policies of African countries are based on best current knowledge and practices", the communique said.

Home-grown oversight

By setting up the institute and the codes of practice, Nepad's backers are hoping to head off worries among the Western states whose money is needed if Nepad is to succeed.

The immediate accolades from many neighbouring states for Robert Mugabe's win in Zimbabwe's presidential elections earlier this month - despite credible evidence of widespread abuse of the electoral process by his government - sparked sharp criticism.

It even generated warnings from both US and UK politicians that the regional response to Zimbabwe put Nepad funding at risk by giving the lie to promises that Africa will police itself on questions of good governance.

The communique failed to mention Zimbabwe - although earlier, leaders had voiced their ire at such comments.

But it did back a written declaration, laying out the standards of pluralistic democracy, human rights, freedom of the press and judiciary and transparency by which Nepad members would have to abide.

The communique also gave formal backing to the draft action plan for Africa which is now to be presented to the G8 meeting of the world's biggest industrialised states in Canada in June.

The draft builds on the Nepad plans to take in broader development questions, including the need to ensure fresh water and fight the HIV/Aids pandemic, as well as other diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.