South African President ThaboMbeki will launch his African Union (AU) mandate mission to Cote d'Ivoire in the next two days in a bid to restore peace in the strife-torn country.

This was announced in a statement by Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad at a press conference in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Mbeki is expected to hold talks with political leaders in Abidjan and to travel to the central rebel stronghold of Bouake.

Mbeki and his delegation are due to leave "around Thursday but it all depends on further developments," the deputy foreign minister added.

The west African country was thrown into crisis since its warplanes attacked French soldiers policing a buffer zone between the government troops and northern rebels earlier November.

A rebel insurgency in 2002 split Cote d'Ivoire in two, with thesouth under the government control and the north and parts of the west in rebel hands.

Government planes attacked French peacekeepers' positions in Bouake on November 6. France retaliated by destroying the country's air force, and an exodus of foreigners amid anti-French sentiment ensued.

Mbeki was mandated by the AU to try and resolve the crisis and has since met with Cote d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo, opposition leader in exile Alassane Ouattara, rebel leader Guillaume Soro and Prime Minister Seydou Diarra to try to put peace accords back on track.

Source: Xinhua