Regional heavyweights expected to pile on pressure as deadline looms

The presidents of South African and Nigeria are due in Cote d'Ivoire at the weekend to make sure the country's warring factions accomplish the difficult task of agreeing who will be the new prime minister, diplomats said on Friday. A UN resolution has called on the key actors in Cote d’Ivoire’s three-year conflict to select a new head of government before Monday, who will be charged with shepherding the country to elections within a year. But with only three days to go before the deadline expires, the list of possible nominees appears wide open. The main opposition coalition, collectively known as the G7, told IRIN it wanted to know the details of exactly what the prime minister’s responsibilities would be, before even making a nomination. "We are not at the stage where we can offer names for the post of prime minister," said Cisse Bacongo, spokesman for the G7. "We first want the role of the new prime minister to be clarified." But one western diplomat involved in peace-seeking efforts in the West African country said the prime minister’s role was clearly laid out in the original Linas-Marcoussis deal, brokered by France and signed in January 2003. "This is not up for discussion. The powers of the prime minister are clearly laid out. It's a name that is needed, someone to implement the plans that have already been put in place," said the diplomat, who declined to be named. "That is all." Cote d'Ivoire split into a rebel-held north and government controlled-south after an attempted coup in September 2002. A series of peace deals signed since Linas-Marcoussis have failed to be implemented, forcing the UN last month to declare as unfeasible a plan to hold elections this Sunday, 30 October. Instead the UN has backed an African Union (AU) proposal to allow President Laurent Gbagbo to remain in office for up to 12 more months beyond the end of his elected mandate to avert a constitutional crisis. This weekend, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, in his capacity as AU chairman, will lead a special meeting jointly with South African president and AU-nominated mediator, Thabo Mbeki, to help the country’s factions thrash out a name. According to diplomats, no one will be leaving the negotiating room in the capital Yamoussoukro until a prime minister is agreed. Rebel leader, Guillaume Soro, told IRIN this week that because his New Forces controlled half the country, either he or his deputy Louis-Andre Dacoury-Tabley would be the only acceptable replacements for out-going prime minister Seydou Diarra. Diarra, while being praised for his smooth conciliatory manner, has been criticised for being under-assertive and for failing to hold onto powers accorded him under the 2003 peace deal, leaving too much clout instead to Gbagbo. "Diarra has never been able to pull his team of ministers together and exercise his authority," an African diplomat told IRIN. Nonetheless, the UN resolution does not block Diarra from re-selection as prime minister, and some analysts have said he may be the best choice. The name thought to have Gbagbo's powerful vote is senior banker Charles Konan Banny, governor of the Central Bank of West African states since 1990. With tension rising ahead of the deadline, the head of the UN mission in Cote d'Ivoire, Pierre Schori appealed for calm on Friday, urging Ivorians to respect the law and refrain from staging weekend demonstrations. Meanwhile, hundreds of security forces staged the fourth of five days of public military displays on lagoon-side streets of the main city, Abidjan. Opposition newspapers say the displays, which have been widely covered on state television, are a show of force from the government after a week of coup rumours and threats of holding anti-Gbagbo marches in defiance of a government ban on demonstrations.