N'DJAMENA, Feb 5 (AFP) - The Community of Sahel-Saharan States'second summit ended here Saturday as a success for its chief sponsor Libyan President Moamer Kadhafi, whose calls for new members and a security charter were answered.

New members Djibouti, Gambia and Senegal joined the eight COMESSA states in signing the security charter which aims to preserve peace and stability in the region.

Founded on Libya's initiative in February 1998, COMESSA was designed to promote economic, political and cultural integration within the region and already counted as members Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Libya, Niger, Mali and Sudan.

The admission of three new members makes COMESSA Africa's largest international grouping, fulfilling a long-term Libyan policy goal.

Kadhafi on Friday gave a highly-applauded speech calling for more African states to join the eight-member group he founded in 1998.

"We should think about creating a United States of Africa," the Libyan president said, adding that COMESSA should form the cornerstone of an African union.

This ambitious plan came a step nearer at the conference when members signed a motion supporting the resolution passed by members of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) urging the creation of a united African continent.

In the "N'Djamena Resolution," COMESSA affirmed their support for the resolution passed by the OAU at its extraordinary meeting in September 1999 to create an "African Union" by 2001 and called on them to respect this timetable.

The motion was backed by the ten heads of state present, who went on to pass a motion of thanks to their "brother and guide," Kadhafi, while the final motion of the conference gave him "a mandate to speak in the name of COMESSA and defend its interests at international bodies."

Generally considered as an arm of Kadhafi's foreign policy, COMESSA is three-quarters funded by Libya, and while it wields little economic clout, it extends from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.

This reach gives it real political influence, Khadafi declared, enough to make it "capable of negotiating with the European Union."

Under the Libyan strongman's guidance, COMESSA members signed a security accord under which they vowed not to use force to solve regional conflicts.

Delegates agreed to hold the next summit in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and fix its permanent base in Bamako, Mali. President Idriss Deby of Chad will replace Kadhafi as acting president.

Kadhafi had place of honour on the conference platform, sitting between Deby and the head of the Organisation for African Unity, Salim Ahmed Salim.

Meanwhile, at the summit, witnesses said Kadhafi, surrounded by heavily-armed Libyan guards because of fears he could be attacked, had made his presence felt at the conference city.

"For the last two days, Libyans look to be everywhere," one Chad journalist said.