A force of 100 Togolese peacekeepers left Lome on Tuesday for Cote d'Ivoire for a troop rotation after the UN Security Council renewed the mandate of the peacekeeping mission in that country.

The fresh peacekeeping troops, including 70 military soldiers and 30 gendarmes, were to replace their compatriots of another 100 troops, who would go back home on the same day.

On Monday, the Security Council extended the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in Cote d'Ivoire for one month to give more time for negotiations between the Cote d'Ivoirean government and rebels, who have been locked in a three-year conflict.

The peacekeeping mission in Cote d'Ivoire has currently 6,000 international troops.

Cote d'Ivoire, the world's largest cocoa producer, has been split between the rebels in the north and loyalists in the south, since a failed coup attempt in 2002.

The late former Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema was a crucial mediator throughout the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire, in efforts to restore the peace process in the West African country.

Eyadema had been meeting conflicting parties in the crisis and giving them advice in Lome, before he died of heart attack in February.

Source: Agencies/CD