PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda is today expected in Uganda's capital city, Kampala where he will join other African leaders from 35 nations to attend a landmark African Union (AU) special summit on refugees, returnees and internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) on the continent.

President Banda will be among other African heads of State at a two-day summit which is expected to be officially opened on Thursday by Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi, who is the AU chairperson.

The summit will culminate into the adoption of the AU convention on IDPs and refugees.

An AU extraordinary session for ministers from different African countries will also honour nations that have played a key role in hosting refugees and IDPs.

Ugandan Premier Apolo Nsibambi opened the ministers' meeting, which is expected to officially close today.

Zambia's Home Affairs Minister Lameck Mangani is leading the Zambian delegation part which arrived in Kampala last night.

Zambia's participation is cardinal at the historic summit dubbed 'Addressing the challenge of forced displacement in Africa' and aims to end the causes of forced displacement in Africa.

Briefing the Zambian delegation which included Mr Mangani yesterday at Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort, the venue of the AU summit, Zambia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Lazarous Kapambwe said the summit was the first of its kind and it was Zambia's brain child.

Mr Kapambwe expressed happiness that Zambia not only initiated the concept but also contributed to the formulation of the AU draft convention which African leaders were expected to endorse.

"Zambia's participation is significant because we originated the idea at the Burkina Faso African Union heads of State Summit in 2006 and also the country has hosted refugees and IDPs for a long time.

Therefore, we felt the need for the AU heads to meet and discuss the issue of IDPs which lacks the legal framework to protect them," he said.

Mr Kapambwe, who said the summit was scheduled to take place last year but was deferred to this year, noted that Africa had been hosting refugees and IDPs more than any other continent in the world, hence the need to devise an instrument which would cater for the humanitarian aid of IDPs.