KAMPALA, Uganda - Experts from 10 African countries that use the waters of the Nile River began a weeklong meeting last Monday in Uganda to work out how to share the benefits of the huge natural resource and avoid potential conflict.

The experts, who include engineers and lawyers, are planning to write a proposal on how to develop the resources of the Nile Basin, said Nsubuga Ssenfuma, an official in the Ugandan Ministry of Water.

The closed-door talks in Entebbe, 40 kilometres southeast of the capital of Kampala, are being held under the auspices of the Nile Basin Initiative, which was formed in 1999 to study how to manage the river for power generation, irrigation and transport.

Experts have warned that Africa could face water wars in the future if the continent's rivers were not properly shared. The Nile Basin supplies water to about 300 million people.

Meraji Msuya, executive director Nile Basin Initiative, said the meeting would also discuss a treaty drawn up in 1929 between the former British rulers and Egypt that gives preferential treatment to the north African country.

Under the treaty, which is still in effect, other Nile Basin countries were not allowed to implement projects on the Nile that would reduce the volume of water reaching Egypt without first consulting Egyptian authorities, Msuya said.

The 10 Nile Basin countries - Burundi, Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda - surround the fabled river and the streams and lakes from which it springs.

The White Nile, which begins from Lake Victoria, is joined in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, by the Blue Nile, which draws water from the highlands of western Ethiopa. The combined river flows through northern Sudan and Egypt until it empties into the Mediterranean Sea.

All the Nile Basin countries are poor and the river provides vital resources for irrigation, fishing and power generation.

(Agencies via Xinhua)