State denies involvement of Angolan troops

Cote d'Ivoire's government has denied rebel claims that Angolan troops have been fighting alongside loyalist forces, state radio reported on Tuesday. It quoted the government as saying that the only foreign troops on Ivoirian soil other than those deployed by France to protect its nationals were mercenaries supporting the insurgents. On Monday the rebels had claimed that Angolans had been deployed to Cote d'Ivoire to support government forces and had suspended discussions with Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) mediators led by Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio. The insurgents have held much of northern and central Cote d'Ivoire since 19 September, when they launched a failed attempt to overthrow the government. On Saturday, they took the western town of Daloa, but government forces recaptured it two days later. The Ivorian military said in a communique on Tuesday that its troops were consolidating their positions in Daloa and "reducing all pockets of resistence" there. It said its forces had sustained four casualties in Daloa while five rebels had been killed. Three vehicles, one belonging to the Ivorian Electricity Company and two from the gendarmes (paramilitary police) were recovered from the rebels as well as a transmitter and various weapons, according to the communique. Support for negotiations between the two sides has come from various quarters, including US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner. "We encourage President [Laurent] Gbagbo to look at how some kind of ceasefire talks could be initiated," he said on Tuesday at a press briefing in Washington. Kansteiner, who recently returned to the United States from a visit to Cote D'Ivoire and other West African states, said the US government was "sending strong signals to the Ivorian Government that flexibility is the name of the game right now, and we fully support them". "They are the elected government, and we recognize that this is an important principle that we have to stand by that a rebel group simply [...] cannot come to the fore by the barrel of a gun," he added. "And so we encouraged him [Gbagbo] to be flexible, at the same time recognizing that he is the right government of the day." Kansteiner said his delegation had encouraged Gbagbo "to look for peaceful solutions, to reach out to the rebels in the sense of bringing them into some kind of peace talks and working with [...] ECOWAS in producing some of the modalities for a ceasefire."