Presidents of Nigeria and Ghana see progress to resolve crisis

The presidents of Nigeria and Ghana flew to Cote d'Ivoire on Thursday to meet President Laurent Gbagbo to discuss ways of ending a five-week-old stand-off with rebels occupying the north of the country and said afterwards they had made progress. President John Kufuor of Ghana told reporters after their talks at Abidjan airport with Gbagbo and Seydou Diarra, the Prime Minister of Cote d'Ivoire's broad-based government of national reconciliation: "We believe that what has transpired today will provide a cooling down period in the peace process and in the transitional government." "We came to get a report of the situation and the progress and we made suggestions on the way forward in the transition government up to elections," Kufuor added. The mini-summit followed two weeks of intense diplomacy, during which a procession of Ivorian political and rebel leaders visited Kufuor in Accra, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade in Dakar. Diplomats said the aim of these meetings was to organise a reconciliation summit between Gbagbo and the rebel leaders in the Ghanaian capital Accra to put Cote d'Ivoire's faltering peace process back on track. The rebels signed a peace agreement with Gbagbo in January and accepted nine ministerial portfolios in Diarra's coalition cabinet three months later. But they walked out on 23 September and suspended plans to disarm in protest at Gbagbo's alleged failure to delegate meaningful powers to the government. Obasanjo told reporters that he and Kufuor had presented a report to Gbagbo and Diarra, based on the different meetings they had had with other players in the Ivorian situation. "We also tried to find the way forward for the transition government to work smoothly up to elections and also how to have all hands backs working in harmony together in the transition government," Obasanjo added. However, the Nigerian leader did not spell out the course of action that had been decided. Diplomatic sources told IRIN on Wednesday that Obasanjo and Kufuor would demand early action from Gbagbo three key concerns of the rebels: - Reform of the constitution to allow Ivorians with a foreign parent or who had lived outside the country for a prolonged period to occupy top government positions, including the presidency. - The revision of Cote d'Ivoire's nationality law to make it easier for immigrants from other West African countries and their children to obtain full Ivorian nationality. - The enactment of new laws on land ownership to make it easier for immigrants who have occupied and cultivated land for several years with the consent of the local community to be given full legal title to the property.