JOHANNESBURG, Nov 21: South African President Thabo Mbeki held a second day of talks on Sunday with Ivory Coast rebel leader Guillaume Soro and Prime Minister Seydou Diarra to broker peace in the war-wracked west African nation.
"The president met Mr Soro from 9:00 (0700 GMT) to 11:00 and he is in talks with Prime Minister Diarra as we speak," presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo said. "These are part of the consultations that began yesterday," Khumalo said, adding that the South African side was unlikely to give details of Sunday's discussions.
Mbeki has been authorized by the African Union to help end a stalemate in the world's top cocoa producer, which has been cut in half by a rebellion which began in September 2002. The South African leader on Saturday said he wanted to return to Ivory Coast "very, very quickly.
"I want to go back to the Cote d'Ivoire and that includes Bouake and not only Abidjan," the South African leader said referring to the northern headquarters of the rebels - now called the Force Nouvelle or New Forces - and the coastal port city of Abidjan in the government-controlled south.
The objective would be to "interact with the whole leadership, the government, the president, the Force Nouvelle, the parliament, everybody ... to say 'our assessment is as follows, and this is what we think should happen.'" Ivory Coast, once France's star colony and an oasis of peace and prosperity in troubled west Africa, has been split in half by a September 2002 uprising. -AFP
