Powell meets West African team

2003-11-26 13:22

Washington - US Secretary of State Colin Powell met with a high-level delegation of West African ministers on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing civil war in the Ivory Coast and stability in war-torn Liberia.

Powell held talks here with a ministerial delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) on the situations in both African states.

"The secretary met this morning with the foreign ministers of the Economic Community of West African States to discuss the situation in Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)," state department spokesperson Richard Boucher said.

Ivory Coast, the world's number one producer of cocoa, has been in deadlock since rebels pulled out of the reconciliation government of President Laurent Gbagbo in September.

"They discussed some ideas about how the international community can move forward to help stabilise the situation in Cote D'Ivoire and help stabilise the situation in the region," Boucher explained.

"And we and they will keep in touch and keep working together on these issues," he underlined.

The civil war in the Ivory Coast, set off by a rebel uprising in September 2002, was declared over in July but the country remains divided with the former rebels still holding much of the north and west of the country.

On the issue of Liberian stability, Boucher said: "There was some discussion of the regional situation, particularly the situation in Liberia."

"And the secretary congratulated them and they congratulated him on the work that we've done together in Liberia to bring stability to the situation, start moving forward there."

Some 15 000 peacekeepers, humanitarian personnel and police officers are to be deployed by early next year to Liberia to help the impoverished country emerge from back-to-back civil wars over the last 14 years that killed more than 200 000 people.

- AFP