It was billed as the occasion for European countries to shed post-colonial guilt along with any predilection to deliver lessons.

Africa would respond by shaking off lingering victim status and embrace a more collaborative approach to global issues of common interest. A long list of these was identified, covering everything from outer space to climate change in a joint "Africa EU strategy and Action plan".

But, inevitably, the first EU-Africa summit for seven years, hosted by Portugal in Lisbon, was not so simple.

Abdoulaye Wade, the outspoken Senegalese leader and only African president to emerge unprompted from behind closed doors, used the occasion to warn Europe that it was losing the battle for trade and influence on the continent.

Africa has other suitors now, he said. His comments reflect wider African frustration at the pace of Europe's response to changing realities - driven by Asian and other demand for Africa's resources - even if some of his peers ­privately accused him of grandstanding.

European investors might be drawn more to Asian markets and their governments might be struggling to identify new and competitive ways to engage with Africa but they should not be surprised to find Asian products and investors filling the gap, Mr Wade said.

"Europe has nearly lost the battle of competition in Africa. With the price of one European car you can buy two Chinese cars," he said.

On aid as well as trade, Mr Wade said the dominance of western donors was under threat. "If I want to do five kilometres of road with the World Bank, or one of the international financial institutions, it takes at least five years. One year of discussions. One year of back and forth. One year of I don't know what.

"With the Chinese it is a few days and I say yes or no, they send a team, and we sign."

It was partly in recognition of the competition that the Portuguese, the first European colonisers in Africa and the last to leave, persisted in ensuring the summit went ahead. This was in spite of disputes between Britain, other European countries and African leaders over whether Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean leader, should be allowed to attend while presiding over his country's ruin.

Nicholas Sarkozy, France's president, said far too much honour had been done to Mr Mugabe by allowing the issue of his attendance to delay the summit for years.

A chorus of non-governmental organisations and rights activists outside the summit tried to keep the pressure up, underlining another dilemma for European governments as they try to maintain their position in Africa. While they might prefer to be less imperious when dealing with issues such as corruption and human rights, domestic constituencies demand that European leaders continue to wield a stick.

"After long years we were able to break the ice and to stop talking in terms of ­colonised and colonising ­peoples," said Luis Amado, Portugal's foreign minister, echoing rhetoric about a new dawn in EU Africa relations dubbed by the hopeful as the "Spirit of Lisbon".

African speakers acknowledged that the fraternal mood of the summit had the makings of a wind of change but many were less ready to allow Europe to escape the past.

"This is a point of departure," said Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the African Union, but one very much informed by history. "Africa is not poor. That is the paradox. This poverty is not fate. It is the result, we have to admit, of unequal relations. It is also the result of bad governance."