Cote d'Ivoire rebel leader calls for dialogue to end 4-year crisis

The rebel leader of Cote d'Ivoire on Monday urged emergency consultations between political rivals in the rift-torn west African nation to end the crisis that has lasted for more than four years, local media reported.

New Forces rebel leader Gillaume Soro made the call after President Laurent Gbagbo last month offered to open direct dialogue with him in a bid to reunite the nation by the end of January 2007.

Soro, apparently in a counter-proposal, appealed for the immediate talks with opposition parties within the framework of Resolution 1721 adopted by the UN Security Council in November last year.

He said the New Forces had no objection to any dialogue or consultations so long as they were conducted under the resolution, which extended the tenures of both President Gbagbo and Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny for another year.

The resolution gave the leeway for an agreement between key players in politics in hopes for a generally accepted election in 2007.

But Gbagbo said he preferred direct dialogue with the New Forces as political parties had failed to bring peace to the nation despite a series of agreements they had reached.

The disarmament and reunification could be realized through direct dialogue with the rebel forces, according to the president.

Cote d'Ivoire's politicians held talks in September last year on the stalled peace process. The closed-door meeting involved Gbagbo, Banny, Soro and opposition leaders Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouattara, but broke up without a breakthrough.

UN special envoy Pierre Schori said that Cote d'Ivoire could not hold the scheduled elections by the end of October 2006, attributing the failure to unresolved obstacles to electoral registration, disarmament and voter identification.

About 10,000 UN and French forces are deployed in Cote d'Ivoire, which remains divided between a government-controlled south and a rebel-held north since fighting broke out in 2002. A peace agreement was signed in January 2003, but deep differences still plague the nation delaying the disarmament process and the presidential elections.

Source: Xinhua