Rwanda became the 54th member of the Commonwealth.

The body wrapped up its summit in Port of Spain, Trinidad, with severe criticism for continued military rule in Fiji.

It also voiced its support for the climate change summit in Copenhagen early next month.

Pressure groups urged the Commonwealth not to admit Rwanda because of human rights shortcomings but the 60-year-old trans-continental body was determined to demonstrate its vitality and relevance.

Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma indicated admitting a second member with no colonial links to Britain was seen as a way of doing this.

For francophone Rwanda, it further cut historic ties with France whom Kigali maintained was complicit in the 1994 genocide of more than 800 000 Tutsis although the small great lakes state known as the country of a thousand hills had restored diplomatic relations with Paris.