CAPE TOWN (AFP) -- The World Economic Forum (WEF) began a meeting on Africa Wednesday by warning the continent faced being left further behind as its growth rates fail to match those elsewhere in the world.

Africa's economy is expected to grow 6.2 percent in 2007, having achieved 4.9 percent over five years from 2001 and 5.5 percent last year alone, said a joint report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), World Bank and African Development Bank.

"The African macro-economic environment is looking better and better," WEF senior economist Jennifer Blanke told reporters in Cape Town. But she added: "The problem is that the rest of the world is moving faster."

International Monetary Fund (IMF) statistics put Chinese growth at 10 percent last year, India at 8.4 percent and Russia at 6.4 percent.

The latest Africa competitiveness report, released on the first day of the 17th WEF meeting on Africa, expressed doubt that the continent's growth trajectory would be sustainable.

Much of the growth was fuelled by variable external factors like high commodity prices, debt relief and a favorable international economic environment.

Decades of continued high growth was needed for Africa to raise the living standards of its people, the report argued.

"Present growth rates in Africa, although high by historical standards, are still short of the estimated seven percent annual growth that would be required to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty rates in the region by 2015," it said.

The report measures the competitiveness of 29 African states among a sample of 128 countries around the world.

"The competitiveness of most countries in Africa continues to lag behind the rest of the world and even behind other developing regions," it said.

World Bank chief economist John Page said the continent needed good policies and institutions and large investment in physical infrastructure and human resources.

African speakers at a plenary session agreed, but argued the international community had a big role to play.

World Bank vice-president for Africa Obiageli Ezekwesili said the continent required annual investment of at least 20 billion dollars in infrastructure.

"African governments are keeping the promises they made in discussions with the G8. More and more improvements are happening in terms of good governance, in terms of right policy choices," she said. "Now what needs to happen is that the other side must come through on their promises. Africa has had enough declarations, it is now the season for Africa to see action."

Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade reiterated the G8 had not kept all its aid promises to Africa, saying the continent was instead benefiting from long-term, low-interest loans from countries like China and India.

And South Africa's president Thabo Mbeki said previous plans for Africa's turnaround by institutions like the IMF and World Bank failed because it came from outside the continent. "We want to do our own thing."

About 700 business and political leaders from the continent and the rest of the world were gathering in Cape Town for the annual WEF Africa meeting to seek ways of boosting growth on the world's poorest continent.

Africa's growing economic ties with non-traditional partners like China and India is one of the issues to come under the microscope.

Li Ruogu, president of China's Export-Import Bank, said trade between his country and Africa was growing at about 30 percent per annum, reaching 55 million dollars last year. "But if we want to really generate trade, we have to generate development," he told a news conference. "Without development, there is no basis for trade."