Many African states are too small to continue to exist independently, Sudan-born magnate Mo Ibrahim has told a conference in Tanzania.

苏丹出生的大资本家易卜拉欣在坦桑尼亚一个新闻发布会上称，许多非洲国家面积太小，不足以继续独立存在。

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Mo Ibrahim was speaking at a two-day forum in Dar es Salaam

Mr Ibrahim said the idea that 53 small African countries thought they could compete with China, India, Europe and the US was a "fallacy（谬论）".

Trade within Africa accounts for just 4-5% of the continent's international trade, something that is "not viable（能养活的，能养育的）".

The tycoon³ said Africa "needs scale" to compete with the big economic players.

"We need scale and we need that now - not tomorrow, the next year or the year after."

The BBC's Peter Greste in Nairobi says Mr Ibrahim was referring to economic integration⁴（整合，集成） rather than political unification（统一，一致）.

Speaking to an audience that included Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, Mr Ibrahim said Africans were poor, hungry and going without.

"Something is drastically⁵ wrong. I think we have the right to ask our leaders: are they really serious?" he said.

Mr Ibrahim surprised African leaders last month when the $5m (£2.9m) Ibrahim prize for good governance was withheld（停止，被扣押）.

The prize is given to a democratically elected leader from sub-Saharan Africa who has served their term and left office.

South Africa's Thabo Mbeki and Ghana's John Kufuor had been among the favourites.