West African leaders on Friday held a summit in Nigeria aimed at finding a political solution to the protracted Cote d'Ivoire crisis that has effectively split world's largest cocoa producer into two with former rebels holding the north.

More than half heads of state from the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), including the group's chairman, Niger President Mamadou Tandja, attended the summit in Abuja, Nigeria's capital.

In a communique issued after the summit, the leaders, also including those of Nigeria, Senegal, Benin, Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana, Sierra Leone said the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire had "the potential to destabilize the entire West African sub-region."

"The heads of state and government expressed deep concern about the persistence and deterioration of the situation in the country, " the communique said.

Their recommendations were however not publicized, as they will be submitted to a meeting the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council on October 6 in Ethiopia, officials said.

Cote d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo, whose tenure is due to end on October 30, the date of the country's presidential elections that almost certainly will be shelved, was however absent from Friday's summit. He had accused the country's neighbors Burkina Faso and Mali of backing the former rebels.

If the elections could not be held as scheduled, forming a new transitional government to replace Gbagbo's regime as suggested by the former rebels would be an "extreme option," Nigerian Foreign Minister Oluyemi Adeniji told reporters.

Gbagbo himself reiterated his determination to stay on as head of state until new elections can be held.

A series of mediation efforts, including the latest by AU- appointed mediator, South African President Thabo Mbeki, had yielded little results. Neither side stuck to the disarmament deadlines set by Mbeki to allow the presidential polls scheduled for October 30 to go ahead.

A former French colony, Cote d'Ivoire was plunged into a civil war in September 2002 after a failed coup. Since then, it has been split into the rebel-held north and the government-controlled south.

Source: Xinhua