Commonwealth admits Rwanda as 54th member

By Pascal Fletcher

PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) - The Commonwealth has admitted French-speaking Rwanda as its 54th member in the latest expansion of the geographically diverse group of mostly former British colonies, its leaders said on Sunday.

The decision to let the Central African country join was taken by leaders of the Commonwealth, which is headed by Britain's Queen Elizabeth, at a summit in Trinidad and Tobago.

It came on the same day as Rwanda and France agreed in Kigali to restore diplomatic relations that were severed in 2006.

The three-day Commonwealth meeting focussed mainly on forging a consensus on firm commitments and strategies for fighting global warming that could be brought to U.N. climate talks in Denmark next month.

"What we have demonstrated is that diversity can easily be turned into strength rather than a weakness," the summit host, Trinidadian Prime Minister Patrick Manning said in a closing speech.

He said the Commonwealth had contributed significantly to the diplomatic drive for a comprehensive climate pact to be achieved at the December 7-18 talks in Copenhagen.

Rwanda's accession to the Commonwealth had been widely anticipated, despite objections voiced by some human rights groups that questioned whether the country met the required standards of political freedom and human rights.

Before independence in 1962, Rwanda was under German then Belgian rule. As a Francophone country, it forged close ties with France during Francois Mitterrand's presidency and has been rebuilding its economy after a 1994 ethnic genocide that killed some 800,000 people.