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Security Council mission in West Africa wraps up talks in Côte d'Ivoire

Security Council mission in West Africa wraps up talks in Côte d'Ivoire

A United Nations Security Council delegation in West Africa exploring opportunities for regional peace and stability, has wrapped up a series of discussions with top officials in Côte D'Ivoire on ways to fully implement a six-month old power-sharing accord.

The mission, headed by Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom, has concluded a day and a half of meetings, which included talks with Ivoirian President Laurent Gbagbo.

During their stay in the Ivoirian capital of Abidjan, the mission reviewed the status of implementation by all the parties of the Linas-Marcoussis agreement, a French-brokered peace accord reached in January that calls on the government, rebels and political opposition to share power in a transitional government until elections in 2005. The Council members pledged support of the international community as implementation get underway.

While in Accra, Ghana, yesterday, the Ghanaian Foreign Minister Akufo Addo said Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was prepared to increase the number of troops in Côte d'Ivoire and to commit a force to Liberia, but was seeking funding to do so from those countries in a position to provide it. Ghana's President, John Agyekum Kufuor, currently holds the rotating chairmanship of ECOWAS.

Tomorrow, the Mission will leave Côte d'Ivoire and return to Ghana for meetings with the parties involved in the Liberian peace talks, as well as ECOWAS' Executive Secretary, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the ECOWAS mediator, Gen. Abdelsalami Abubakar, and the Representative of the Secretary-General for Liberia, Abou Moussa.

Meanwhile, the Council members expressed pleasure that following the Mission's visit to Guinea-Bissau, President Kumba Yala, had, as agreed, announced the date for legislative elections, now set to take place on 12 October 2003.