Kenya has secured the support of 16 African governments in its battle with neighbouring Tanzania over a proposal to allow for controlled trade in ivory.

At least two thirds of the 23 member African Elephants Coalition are backing Kenya's proposal to replace the nine-year moratorium on ivory trade, which ends in 2019 with a 20-year moratorium.

If adopted, the proposal will bind all parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to outlaw trade in ivory a move that Tanzania and Zambia have opposed.

Reports from the six-days of meeting of AEC in Brussels indicate that Mali, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, Republic of Congo and Government of Southern Sudan backed Kenya's proposal to maintain the strongest possible international moratorium on trade in ivory.

"No proposals for trade in ivory should be considered until COP18 in 2019. Proposals from Tanzania and Zambia should therefore be withdrawn," a statement issued after the meeting chaired by Mali and Kenya said.

The position is a huge blow to efforts by the Tanzania and Zambia governments that had last November asked the CITES secretariat to remove the African elephant, Loxodonta africana, from the list of animals facing extinction (Appendix I) to Appendix II. That move would effectively have meant that trade in ivory and elephants would not be banned but controlled.

Trade in species facing extinction is allowed under exceptional circumstances while that involving species in the second tier is managed to avoid utilisation that can endanger their survival.

CITES press officer, Juan Carlos Vasquez, said the Secretariat was waiting for a panel of experts to advise on the merits of the Tanzanian proposal before deciding whether to accept the submission.

Tanzania is seeking CITES permission for a one-off sale of 90 tonnes of ivory from registered government-owned stocks to trading partners designated by the Cites Standing Committee while Zambia wants to sell 22 tonnes of its ivory stockpiles. That consignment excludes seized ivory and stocks of unknown origin.

Kenya and Rwanda are opposed to any such sale which Forestry and Wildlife minister Noah Wekesa said would increase poaching within wildlife corridors shared by the countries.

"With less than two months before 175 countries meet in Doha, Qatar, for COP15, AEC member states have been taking their message in person to Brussels hoping to persuade the EU to stand by the spirit of a nine-year moratorium on international ivory trade that was agreed at the last CITES meeting in The Hague in 2007," Dr Wekesa told the meeting.

The CITES-approved one-off sales of ivory in 2008 by Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe has been blamed for an escalation of poaching in Kenya to levels higher than when the global ban on ivory trade was imposed in 1988.

Last year 232 elephants were killed compared to 145 in 2008. Before the Southern African states were allowed to conduct the one off sale, only 47 elephants had been killed.

In Chad, the population of elephants at the Zakouma national park fell from an estimated 3800 in 2005 to 617. Last month, Sierra Leone announced the looming extinction of its elephants due to increased demand for ivory.

"The 20-year timeframe is fully justified. A whole generation of elephants across the continent needs to be given a chance to re-establish itself, which needs 20 years," AEC said in the joint statement

The meeting in Brussels was meant to lobby support from the European Union to support Africa's call for a global moratorium on trade in Ivory at the CITES meeting to be held in Doha in March.

The bloc was represented at the meeting by the Dutch member of EU Parliament Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy.

"The medium term survival of the African elephant is on the line and this is no time for the EU to take a low-key stance. We expect the 27 member bloc to do the right thing," said Patrick Omondi, the Head of Species Conservation at the Kenya Wildlife Service.

The EU parliamentary delegation to the CITES meeting comprises Mr Gerbrandy, Ms Sirpa Pietikäinen of Finland and Bas Eickhout (Netherlands).

The moratorium mediated by EU at the last COP14 in 2007 stated that no elephant trade proposals would be submitted by any Party to CITES, at least for the duration of the ban.