Cote d'Ivoire rivals to hold new peace talks in S.Africa

President of Cote d'Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo has accepted South African President Thabo Mbeki's invitation to attend a new round of peace talks with opposition leaders in Pretoria early next week, the president's office confirmed with Xinhua on Thursday.

In an interview on Wednesday, South African ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire, Chief Gwadiso, said the new round of peace talks will be held in Pretoria on June 28-29 and all the major political parties in Cote d'Ivoire have agreed to participate.

Gwadiso said Cote d'Ivoire's peace agreement, signed in Pretoria on April 6, have run into some difficulties in its implementation. President Mbeki, who has been mediating on behalf of the African Union between Cote d'Ivoire's various political factions, then decided to convene a new round of talks to discuss how to solve the problems to ensure a comprehensive implementation of the accord.

Cote d'Ivoire, the world's largest cocoa producer, was plunged into a civil war in September 2002 after a failed coup. Mediated by Mbeki, the government and rebels signed an agreement on April 6, agreeing to stop fighting, disarm militias and hold the presidential elections on Oct. 30 as planned.

On May 14, the army and rebels clinched a deal, setting a timetable for the disarmament campaign to be finished by the end of June. On June 13, however, political leaders of the opposition armed forces issued a statement, saying that due to a lack of political and technical conditions, the disarmament plan could not proceed as planned.

Source: Xinhua