Four African countries have signed a new treaty on the equitable sharing of the Nile waters despite strong opposition from Egypt and Sudan who have the major share of the river waters.

Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania - four of nine Nile Basin countries - signed the new framework on Friday while Kenya issued a support statement.
Burundi, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the other Nile Basin countries, were not represented at the meeting in the Ugandan city of Entebbe.
""This agreement benefits all of us and harms none of us,"" Asfaw Dingamo, Ethiopia's water resources minister, said.
The upstream countries want to be able to implement irrigation and hydro-power projects in consultation with Egypt and Sudan, but without Egypt being able to exercise the veto power it was given by a 1929 colonial-era treaty with Britain.
""We regret the intentional and announced absence of our dear brothers from Egypt and Sudan,"" Stanislas Kamanzi, Rwanda's water and lands minister, said.
The minister's comments came almost a week after Ahmed Abul Gheit, the Egyptian foreign minister, warned that Cairo's water rights were a ""red line"" and threatened legal action if a unilateral deal was reached.
The new agreement, the Nile Basin Co-operative Framework, is to replace a 1959 accord between Egypt and Sudan that gave them control of more than 90 per cent of the water flow.
The 1959 agreement allowed Egypt 55.5 billion cubic metres and Sudan 18.5 billion cubic metres of water each year. (Source: AlJazeera.net)