Abdullah Omar, South Africa's justice minister, argued Monday that there are several vital prerequisites for the Court to be effective, chief among them that no one country must dominate the ICC's work. Such a Court, he said, could ''ultimately contribute to the attainment of international peace.''

At the same time, he said as the meeting for the ICC began here, the Court should not be dominated by any body or group of nations. ''We do not want a Security Council dominated by Europe ... (or by) powerful countries,'' Omar argued at a weekend forum sponsored by No Peace without Justice, a group which supports the ICC's creation. Although European and other countries have a role to play, he added, the Court's credibility as an impartial body is crucial.

As a result, Omar contended, the UN Security Council must not be able to determine who the Court may prosecute and who not. Instead, many Southern African nations are favouring the adoption of the 'Singapore compromise' by which the Council could only take items off the Court's agenda if its members specifically agree to do so, rather than allowing a potential Council veto over the entire ICC docket.

Southern African nations have been one of the more united groups in supporting the components of a strongly independent Court: a prosecutor empowered to conduct investigations on his or her own authority; a limited Security Council role; and broader international jurisdiction over national courts.

Africa as a whole is able to steer the debate on the Court forcefully because of its sheer size, with 53 nations from the region involved in the ICC debate, noted Phakiso Mochochoko, Lesotho's legal counsel for the conference.

Since many of the countries involved have only recently ended colonial rule - as in Namibia or Zimbabwe - or set up ''truth commissions'' like South Africa's, many also have the moral authority to push for the Court to be an effective one.

The importance of moral suasion in the coming weeks should not be underestimated, cautioned Jacques Baudin, Senegal's justice minister. ''I don't think there can be a representative of a state who can say, 'I am against the establishment of a Court','' Baudin said.

But he warned that those same officials could easily try to prevent the ICC's creation by placing conditions that would make the body a ''mock court'' at best.