African and EU leaders held crisis talks on the spiralling sectarian unrest in the Central African Republic (CAR), at a two-day summit in Brussels.
The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who is also attending, promised to do “everything possible” to improve the international response to the crisis.
The European Union (EU) has already announced plans to send 1,000 troops to the country.
The UN earlier warned that 19,000 Muslims “face slaughter” in CAR.
Trade and immigration will also be high on the agenda at the summit, which ends on Thursday.
The meeting is being attended by 30 heads of state and government – 15 each from Africa and Europe.
Genocide warning
Mr Ban warned that the situation in CAR could spiral into a genocide, at Wednesday’s crisis meeting with EU and African leaders.
He said the people were facing “grave and deplorable atrocities”, and he promised to do everything possible to improve the international response to the conflict.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is boycotting the summit after the EU refused to temporarily lift a visa ban on his wife, Grace.
Mr Mugabe received support from South African President Jacob Zuma, who chose to boycott the summit in a show of solidarity for his Zimbabwean counterpart.
“I think that time must pass wherein we are looked [upon] as subjects,” Mr Zuma said. “We are told who must come, who must not come. It is wrong and causes this unnecessary unpleasantness.”