An African summit began debate on Sunday on forming a federal state as championed by Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, but other leaders warned tough decisions were ahead before such a dream could be fulfilled.
Gaddafi has long campaigned for a United States of Africa as the only way to address the continent's grinding poverty and myriad other problems including the challenges of globalisation.
In an impassioned speech on the eve of a three-day African Union summit he told cheering activists and students: "Our continent is backward, poor, suffering from illnesses, divided and exploited ... shall we allow such a situation to continue?"
Gaddafi ardently backs the immediate creation of a continental government, but most of his fellow leaders feel this is an unrealistic, if noble, dream that distracts from urgent crises in Sudan, Somalia and elsewhere.
That view is shared by many ordinary Africans canvassed by Reuters. "The task before us is enormous. We are at the crossroads and at the same time at the threshold of a new era," said Ghanaian President and AU Chairman John Kufuor.
Alpha Oumar Konare, the AU's top diplomat, supported an integrated continent in his summit opening speech but said many problems must be overcome, including the future of existing pan-African bodies and regional economic blocs. "A strong African leadership must grapple with these issues ... we need to take the bull by the horns, we need to move towards a new country that is Africa. "We want to liberate the continent from misery and hardship and this is the aim of integration." Konare said.
"Today we need strong political decisions. integration is not a technical action, it is a major political action." The summit coincides with the 50th anniversary of independence in Ghana, the first black nation in sub-Saharan Africa to end colonial rule under the iconic leadership of Kwame Nkrumah, himself a standard bearer for African unity.
"From Ghana came the cry of unity. So now from the same place, from the country of Nkrumah, Africa should become a reality," Gaddafi declared at a local university. "Long live the United States of Africa, Long Live African Unity," said the Libyan leader, wearing dark glasses and a shirt decorated with images of African leaders.
The Libyan leader, who says African unity should be decided by the masses and not leaders closeted in a conference hall, did not attend the summit's opening session. Konare seemed to espouse the more gradualist view of many of the other summit participants.