Gbagbo says willing to talk ahead of UN visit

President Laurent Gbagbo took to the airwaves saying he was ready to hold talks to revive the stalled Cote d'Ivoire peace process, just hours before a delegation from the United Nations Security Council arrived in the country. "I remain open to dialogue on all the subjects that worry Ivorian parties as well as the international community," Gbagbo said on state television late on Monday, fresh from his weekend meeting with regional leaders in Nigeria. “Today the priority objectives are clear and known by all. There are three: disarmament, reunification and the organisation of elections in 2005,” he added. He also condemned the recent violence against French citizens and protests against the United Nations, stressing they were not the "enemy”. Cote d'Ivoire, the world's largest cocoa producer, has been split into a rebel-held north and government-controlled south since September 2002. But a peace accord hammered out last year has run into trouble, with the G7 opposition and rebel coalition walking out of the power-sharing government in March and Gbagbo sacking three opposition ministers last month. The G7, which comprises the four main opposition parties in parliament and the rebel New Forces movement, countered Gbagbo's television speech earlier Monday, saying that they were also ready to talk. In a statement co-signed by Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, G7 spokesman Alphonse Dje Dje Mady, called for UN action over the deaths of more than 100 civilians by security forces and pro-Gbabgbo militias during a March peace protest. But some observers were sceptical about Monday's declarations, coming the day before the UN team arrived in Abidjan. "With the Security Council coming, he (Gbagbo) didn't want to say anything that would jeopardise things. They (the G7) too didn't say anything," one humanitarian source said. A professor at the University of Abidjan agreed: "People were waiting for major announcements but it's been the same thing since March". UN officials told IRIN that all sides could expect to receive "a fairly tough message on the need for all parties to live up to their responsibilities and to keep the national reconciliation process on track," from the visiting delegation. Clashes in the rebel held towns of Bouake and Korhogo, that ran from Sunday through to Monday, highlighted the difficult task facing international mediators and the frustration among certain rebel factions. The rebel fighting erupted between supporters of rebel leader Guillaume Soro and Ibrahim Coulibaly, who is facing charges in France of plotting to oust Gbabgo, but is also challenging Soro for the rebel leadership. Amadou Kone, a senior official in the New Forces rebel movement, told IRIN on Tuesday that 22 people had died in the fighting which he said started with a failed assassination attempt on Soro.