African leaders on Wednesday pledged to place women at the heart of their development agenda, and to intensify the fight against disease. In an 11-point action plan agreed at the African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, they set out a strategy for improving the women's rights on the continent. The newly elected AU chairman, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, told leaders that many African countries still held negative attitudes towards women.