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DURBAN, South Africa, July 10 (AFP) - African heads of state closed the inaugural summit of the African Union (AU) in Durban, South Africa, Wednesday after signing protocols to set up a peacekeeping body and key institutions.

"The expectations among our people ... are very high," declared South African President Thabo Mbeki, the first chairman of the AU which has replaced the 39-year-old Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

"We shall have to make sure that the decisions we have made here will be implemented."

Mbeki added that "it might be difficult for us to fully comprehend the significance of this moment".

"I think we have inaugurated the African Union with the necessary enthusiasm, with the necessary vigour and with the necessary level of commitment among ourselves to ensure that this new baby grows and becomes a strong person," he said.

The presidents ratified a protocol setting up a 15-member Peace and Security Council.

It will have the power to call on African armies to provide a peacekeeping force to intervene in any country where crimes against humanity are taking place.

The summit also ratified the documents setting up the AU commission, the executive arm which will work along the lines of the European Commission, with commissioners holding portfolios" the assembly (annual summit), the executive council (foreign ministers) and the permanent representatives committee (ambassadors).

A least half the 10 commissioners must be women, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told reporters.

"You can tell the world that the African Union started off doing better than Beijing," he declared, in a reference to the women's rights summit held in the Chinese capital.

The union plans to set up a pan-African Parliament, in which at least a fifth of the representatives must be women" an African Court of Justice, a central bank, and, eventually, an African Economic Community and a single currency.

The AU is the brainchild of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, who first proposed an integrated "United States of Africa".

He wowed a 25,000-strong crowd at a Durban stadium on Tuesday during festivities to mark the AU's birth.

"Africa is free. It has no more slavery, no more racism and no more colonialism," he yelled after grabbing the microphone for an unscheduled speech.

"Africa for the Africans! We are free! We are the masters of our continent, the masters of our soil!"

Ali Triki, his African unity minister, told Nampa-AFP Wednesday that Libya was confident it would host the AU parliament.

"As far as I know we are the only candidate ... so I imagine that we will get it," he said.

The AU will oversee the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), a plan designed to rescue the continent by winning increased aid and trade in return for good governance and sound economic policies.

"NEPAD is a programme of the African Union," Obasanjo stated.

It will incorporate a voluntary peer review system under which experts will make regular and random checks on political, economic and social policies.

"If there's a need for sanctions, the AU will mete out sanctions, if there is a need for advice, we will mete out advice or admonishment," Obasanjo said.

Madagascar's seat at the summit remained empty because the body does not recognise the legitimacy of President Marc Ravalomanana, whose election in a vote held in December was disputed by outgoing president Didier Ratsiraka and provoked six months of crisis. Ratsiraka fled the Indian Ocean island he has ruled for the better part of the part three decades earlier this month.

The United States, Britain, France and other western countries have recognised Ravalomanana as head of state, but Obasanjo said: "We just have to put our foot down. It may cost us some popularity, but at this early stage of the African Union, if we do not do things on principle we are going to fail before we even start."

hn/ef/kdz Nampa-AFP

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