Gbagbo 'ready' for talks with rival
The disputed president of Cote d'Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo, has said that he is ready to talk to rival Alassane Ouattara, who was recognised by the UN and other international observers as the winner of Nov 28 presidential runoff poll.
The incumbent president has also invited a panel from the African Union and other countries, including China, Russia and the European Union, to re-examine the results of the polls, though he has vowed to stay on as president.
Meanwhile, the World Bank has frozen financing to the Ivory Coast which is in the grip of a presidential stand-off, bank president Robert Zoellick said yesterday, following talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, reports AFP.
Gbagbo's demand that the UN and French peacekeeping forces leave the country remains in place, and on Tuesday he said that "the international community has declared war on Ivory Coast".
However, the UN Security Council has defied this and on Monday extended the mandate for the force - known as UNOCI - for six more months.
Meanwhile, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has urged French citizens to leave the country if they had the means to do so.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has said that forces loyal to Gbagbo have tried to blockade the UN mission in Abidjan, the Cote d'Ivoire's commercial hub, and that the country faces a "real risk" of returning to civil war.
Ban made the comments on Tuesday when briefing the UN General Assembly, and called on member states to prepare supplies to help the mission.
UN peacekeepers are guarding the headquarters of Ouattara at the Golf Hotel in Abidjan.
The pro-Gbagbo Constitutional Council overturned results certified by the UN mission that made Ouattara the winner of the poll.
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