Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has written to United States President George Bush requesting that countries benefiting from the AGOA continue importing raw materials to make fabrics for the American market.

Under the Act, beneficiary countries were allowed to import raw materials called 'third party fabrics' up to this November.

Opening an All Africa on Food Security and Nutrition conference at the Speke Resort Munyonyo, Museveni said Uganda needed the provision extended for some years.

Museveni was flanked by presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal.

The conference was organised under the auspices of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

AGOA, Africa Growth Opportunities Act, was made by the US congress to increase Africa's access to the super-power's huge market. It stipulated that imported raw materials could only be used in the first phase, which expires in November.

"The danger to AGOA is that we have been using third party fabrics and make garments for export to the US. If it's not renewed, then the factories started will collapse," Museveni said.

Tri-Star Apparel imports cotton from Sri Lanka to make garments for the US market.

The three-day conference attended by over 700 delegates from across the continent and beyond will draw strategies for ensuring food and nutrition security in Africa by 2020.

Museveni wooed delegates to join his AGOA benefits campaign.

"Let's organise a demonstration to the White House and Congress for the renewal of 'third term fabrics'. Someone was telling me that we wait for election time but I have had elections here and there's much heat," he said.

"All of us need to speak with one voice and now, otherwise the achievements we have got from AGOA will evaporate," Museveni appealed.

Obasanjo said, "We must speak for AGOA three with one voice and we must speak now."

He said Africa must insist on market access and denounce the paralysing subsidies to Europeans and US farmers.

"Time had come for us to be architects of our fortune. In the past we have been architects of our misfortune," he added.

He urged the developed countries to open up more their markets and drop subsidies that make it difficult for African agricultural products to compete on the world market.

Wade, who spoke in French, called for achievable recommendations.

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