Ivory Coast rebel back in Government

ABIDJAN - Ivory Coast's rebel leader Guillaume Soro returned to the main city Abidjan on Tuesday to join a new transitional government aiming to reunite the country, split by a 2002-03 civil war.

Guillaume Soro, whose rebel New Forces have held the north of the world's top cocoa grower since 2002, walked out of a previous interim government 17 months ago but has now rejoined an administration set up under a UN-backed peace plan.

His return represents a rare glimmer of hope for the long-delayed peace process.

"The peace process is moving forward. He is doing what he agreed to do. He will be part of the discussions and part of the solution now," an African diplomat told Reuters.

Soro travelled on Tuesday from the northern rebel headquarters of Bouake to the port city of Abidjan, where he shook hands with and embraced opponent President Laurent Gbagbo, whose forces control the south of the country.

They held a private meeting that lasted around an hour.

"We discussed the peace process. We had a fruitful exchange and I leave here convinced that we are on the right track to achieve peace quickly in Ivory Coast," Soro told reporters outside Gbagbo's presidential offices after the meeting.

"In the coming days we will see the political dialogue we have started extend into a military dialogue," said Soro, wearing a dark business suit. He later held talks with Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny.

Soro, who is minister of reconstruction and reinsertion of soldiers into civilian life in Banny's new interim government named in December, was accompanied by bodyguards from the UN peacekeeping force.

The world body has some 7000 soldiers and police in Ivory Coast, patrolling key areas and a buffer zone across the middle of the West African country alongside some 4000 troops from former colonial power France.

A small number of rebel bodyguards will also be allowed to accompany him in government territory, diplomats said.

Soro did not specify what would be the focus of discussions between government and rebel military officials.

But the two sides have a major task ahead of them to implement a stalled plan to disarm rebel fighters and government militia and reunite the country in time for presidential and parliamentary elections due by the end of October.

Blockages to the peace process have already forced a 12-month postponement of presidential polls under a UN-backed deal that extended Gbagbo's mandate and saw central banker Banny brought in as prime minister in December.

Soro's return to active participation in the government followed a meeting of all the political and armed faction leaders in Ivory Coast's conflict on Feb 28 in the upcountry capital Yamoussoukro.

But some observers fear that after three years of wrangling, delaying tactics and occasional bouts of violence since the first peace deal was reached, Ivory Coast may have left it too late to meet the October deadline for elections.

"The main thing is to see what results this brings," said one Western ambassador. "It is symbolic only. I don't know if it has any real significance."

- REUTERS