Mbeki jets to Ivory Coast

2005-01-06 15:29

Pretoria - President Thabo Mbeki will lead a delegation to Ivory Coast this weekend to further regional efforts to find a solution to the West African country's two-year civil war, the government said on Thursday.

Mbeki, who was asked by the African Union to mediate in the conflict, will be accompanied by Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad on the visit on Sunday, the foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.

He is expected to meet with Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Seydou Diarra in the country's commercial capital, Abidjan.

Mbeki persuaded the government and rebels last month to agree to a new timetable to carry out a long-stalled peace plan. It included steps to be taken on disarmament, security, legislative and constitutional reforms, and other divisive points.

The main aim of Sunday's talks will be to review progress implementing the timetable, the statement said.

Mbeki's delegation will then proceed to Libreville, Gabon, to attend a meeting of the African Union's Peace and Security Council next week.

Ivory Coast, a former bastion of peace and prosperity, has been split between the rebel north and government south since a failed coup attempt in September 2002.

Both sides agreed to the January 2003 peace accord but failed to carry it out. Gbagbo's government reopened hostilities in November with three days of airstrikes on the rebel-held north, citing insurgents' failure to disarm.

A Nov 6 airstrike killed nine French peacekeepers and an American aid worker, prompting brief, unprecedented battles between Ivory Coast's forces and those of its former colonial ruler, France, and the evacuation of thousands of foreigners.

- AP