Nairobi/Accra  - The European Union's election monitoring team Tuesday said that Ghana's elections were open, transparent and competitive as the ruling party's candidate maintained a slim lead while vote counting continued.

"While the process is still ongoing, the 2008 elections have so far helped to strengthen the democratic institutions of Ghana, and Ghana's democratic credentials in the region, Africa and the world at large," EU Chief Observer Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement.

Some were worried that Sunday's simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections could spark the kind of violence witnessed in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Nigeria earlier this year. But with a large chunk of the votes counted, the fears seem unfounded.

Nairobi/Accra  - Ghana's ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) edged ahead in presidential elections Monday morning as results from across the West African nation trickled in.

Early results from 18 constituencies showed that Nana Akufo-Addo had around 53 per cent of the vote, compared to 44 per cent for his main opponent, John Evans Atta Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The other six candidates were, as expected, out of the race.

However, only a small percentage of the votes have been counted. Full results were expected within the next 60 hours.

Nairobi/Accra  - Polls opened in Ghana early Sunday morning in a two-horse presidential race that will decide who leads one of Africa's most stable democracies into the oil era.

Nana Akufo-Addo for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and John Evans Atta Mills for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) are running neck-and-neck to replace John Kufuor, who must step down in January after serving two terms - the constitutional limit.

With another six candidates looking for their share of the vote, most analysts believe that a run-off on December 28 looks likely.

ACCRA, Ghana, Dec. 5  -- The upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in Ghana will feature a number of close electoral races, public opinion polls indicate.

Washington - US President George W Bush and his Ghanian counterpart John Kufuor cited the progress that has been made in fighting AIDS and other diseases in Africa during a meeting at the White House on Monday.

Bush launched a 15-billion-dollar initiative five years ago to fight HIV/AIDS on Africa, the largest programme ever for combatting a single disease. He hope to double that amount in US spending in the next five years.

"I'm very comfortable in telling the American people that this will be money well spent," Bush said.

Bush has also spent millions of dollars to fight malaria, which kills an estimated 1 million Africans annually, most of them children.

Accra - The World Wildlife Fund Wednesday said that some progress had been made at week-long United Nations climate change talks concluding in Ghanian capital Accra.

"Governments managed to push their critical discussions closer to conclusions on some key issues," the WWF said in a statement.

"Strategies are shaping up to reduce CO2 emissions from the destruction of forests, and talks about financing deep emission cuts and adaptation to climate impacts gain clarity."