By Pascal Fletcher

ACCRA, June 29 (Reuters) - Most African Union states do not want to rush into forming a continental government now, but favour gradual steps to build a stronger united Africa, ministers preparing an AU summit said on Friday.

The position of the so-called "gradualists" appeared to be prevailing among African foreign ministers who were preparing a three-day meeting of AU heads of state, starting in the Ghanaian capital Accra on Sunday, that will discuss the idea.

Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, his country flush with cash from an oil boom, is lobbying hard for fast-tracked integration.

Gaddafi, who likes to wear the outline of Africa emblazoned on his clothes, has campaigned in several West African states on his way to the summit, calling for the immediate creation of a single continental government, army, currency and passport.

He has rallied some support from neighbouring Saharan and Sahelian states, including Senegal's octogenarian President Abdoulaye Wade, who also believes the project is long overdue.

But many African nations believe that rushing to proclaim a government of a United States of Africa -- a long postponed dream of Ghana's first president and Pan-African pioneer Kwame Nkrumah -- would be hasty and counterproductive.

"There is a group of 'immediatists' who think the government (of Africa) should be implemented right now, but the majority don't think the conditions are ready," Mozambican Foreign Minister Alcinda Abreu told reporters.

"Why rush?" she asked, adding: "Look at the European Union, they didn't do it in the blink of an eye".

Economic and political heavyweight South Africa was among the majority favouring the "gradualist" approach.

Civil society groups, while they recognise the attraction of the Pan-African dream, have chided African leaders for not doing more to address more pressing problems, such as conflict in Darfur and Somalia, crisis in Zimbabwe and enduring poverty.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has faced international criticism over continued bloodshed in Sudan's western Darfur region, cancelled his trip to the Accra summit following the death of a presidential aide, officials said.

And in an apparent challenge to an ongoing peace process in Ivory Coast, a rocket was fired on Friday at the plane of Ivorian Prime Minister Guillaume Soro in the north of the country. He was unhurt but three others were killed.

BUILDING BLOCKS

The AU foreign ministers were expected to recommend to their heads of states that they think first of consolidating existing "building blocks" of integration, such as regional economic communities and AU structures like the Pan-African parliament.

Forging a federal United States of Africa still appears a huge task in a vast continent of nearly 1 billion people riven by ethnic, religious and political differences that have erupted into wars, coups and massacres over the last half-century.

Nevertheless, some ministers said some Africa-wide issues, such fighting desertification and improving scientific research on the continent, could be managed on a continental level now.

Diplomats said Sub-Saharan African states were not likely to be overawed by Gaddafi's Pan-African roadshow.

"The man may have the right dream but I am not sure that African countries are ready to accept him as their leader of a United States of Africa -- we all know that is probably the hidden agenda," a non-African diplomat, who closely follows continental affairs but asked not to named, said.

"If at this summit, they can agree on a definition of what it is they want to achieve, and the different steps needed to do it, that would be a major step forward," the diplomat added. (Additional reporting by Orla Ryan)

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