NAIROBI, Kenya — Colonel Muammar Gadhafi yesterday called for the creation of a “United States of Africa,” and appeared to be positioning himself to be its first leader.

“My vision is to wake up the African leaders to unify our continent,” the Libyan leader said, as the continent’s 53 heads of state gathered for an African Union summit in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

Flanked by his coterie of female bodyguards and wearing a shirt covered in images of African presidents, he said: “Long live the United States of Africa; long live African unity.”

The rallying cry came ahead of the summit’s grand debate on pan-Africanism, an idea first mooted by Ghana’s first post-independence leader, Kwame Nkrumah.

Critics said the gathering should focus on Zimbabwe, Darfur, and Somalia, and on the continent’s chronic corruption and poverty. Privately, officials from Africa’s leading economies including Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya were said to be “quietly distancing themselves” from Mr. Gadhafi’s statements, according to sources at the summit.

But the Libyan leader found quick support from President Kufour of Ghana and from the chairman of the AU commission, Alpha Oumar Konare.

“The question of unification is not in doubt,” Mr. Kufour said. “What remains is the form of government and how and when to attain it.

“I am confident that at the end of our deliberations, we should be able to arrive at a common understanding on the sort of continental government we want for ourselves, and a roadmap with timelines on its realization.”