Ivory Coast president pledges to cease hostilities with rebels

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- President Laurent Gbagbo pledged Friday to cease hostilities and send home foreign mercenaries fighting with loyalist troops in Ivory Coast.

"We will abstain from all acts of war on all fronts," Gbagbo told reporters after meeting French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin. "We will immobilize our helicopters and keep our men in the positions they are holding, because in the end we want peace."

The main rebel faction quickly dismissed the pledge as a diversion, saying Gbagbo's forces have already broken an October cease-fire several times.

"He said this to mislead the French and international opinion," rebel leader Guillaume Soro said by telephone from their central stronghold of Bouake. "It's too good to be true."

Even as Gbagbo and de Villepin met in Abidjan, fighting raged in the southwest of the country, with a leader of another rebel faction saying he had ordered his troops to charge toward the strategic port of San Pedro.

Insurgents fighting to oust Gbagbo have repeatedly denounced the government's use of foreign mercenaries, who pilot Mi-24 helicopter gunships and have also led ground attacks.

Mercenaries to depart

Gbagbo said the mercenaries -- reportedly including South Africans and Europeans -- would leave on Saturday. "There will be absolutely no more mercenaries here," Gbagbo said.

De Villepin is on an urgent visit to the country in hopes of stemming the violence. He said France proposed peace talks in Paris on Jan. 15. France hoped all Ivory Coast's political forces, rebels, West African mediators and representatives from the United Nations and the African Union would take part, he said.

Earlier, state television reported Gbagbo favored such a meeting, and rebels have also agreed in principle to attend. De Villepin planned to meet with the insurgents on Saturday.

More than 2,000 French troops have been sent to Ivory Coast to enforce the truce, which each side accuses the other of violating. The soldiers are also protecting French citizens and other foreign nationals caught in the fighting.

The first 28 officers of a 1,260-strong West African force, due to work with the French, arrived in Abidjan on Friday.

The war started with a failed coup attempt Sept. 19. Now, the rebels behind the uprising hold the northern half of the country, and two new rebel factions are operating in the rich cocoa- and coffee-producing West. Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced.

The northern rebels agreed to a cease-fire with the government in October, but the western rebels have not signed a truce. All the insurgents want Gbagbo to resign, arguing in part that his government fans ethnic hatred.

France has been playing an increasingly key role in trying to end the conflict in what was once one of West Africa's most stable and prosperous nations.

De Villepin's two-day visit took on added urgency as fighting escalated on a new front, causing hundreds of southwestern residents to flee their homes. The western rebels have pushed at least 120 miles south, after French troops blocked attempted eastern advances.

"Fighting is continuing now," rebel leader Sgt. Felix Doh said by satellite telephone Friday evening. "The order has been given to rush to San Pedro."

The Ivorian army confirmed clashes in the region, but gave no details.

Doh would not specify where his troops were, simply stating they were spread out along the front line. He said he had told them to close on San Pedro and then wait while he contacted French forces stationed in the southern coastal port city.

In the past, rebels have tried to skirt French positions rather than confront them head on. French troops and western rebels have clashed several times in recent weeks.

Ivory Coast is the world's largest producer of cocoa, and much of the harvest is shipped through San Pedro.

Government officials have blamed the southwestern attacks on Liberian mercenaries -- notorious for their drug use and extreme violence. Fleeing residents have also said Liberians are fighting with the rebels.

De Villepin's visit followed on the heels of sharp French criticism of a loyalist Mi-24 helicopter attack on a central fishing village. At least 12 people were killed in Tuesday's attack.

"The violations of the cease-fire in the last days, the clashes, the attacks against human rights have all increased, so the situation is very serious, and we must all mobilize," de Villepin said.

The trip began on a sour note as de Villepin was hemmed in at Gbagbo's Abidjan residence by screaming protesters, angered by an unfounded rumor that the minister had come to demand the president's resignation.

But after Gbagbo came out and joined hands with de Villepin to assure the crowd the rumor was untrue, the protesters calmed down.