Election schedule could move to year-end - Annan

Speaking after a meeting with Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said an October deadline set for the war-divided country to hold elections may have to be allowed to slip until the end of the year - but no later. "It will be preferable to organise these elections in October. But if for a technical reason it is necessary to make an adjustment, I hope this will be a very very brief one," Annan said on Sunday. Annan made his remarks at a press briefing on the sidelines of the African Union summit in the Gambian capital Banjul, following a morning meeting held with Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo and other unspecified regional leaders. "It is necessary to have the elections by the end of October, and definitely the end of the year, because we cannot support the situation as it stands," Annan said. In the run-up to this weekend’s gathering of AU leaders, Annan had announced he would host a "mini-summit" on Cote d'Ivoire to bring Gbagbo together with other African leaders. Annan told journalists that he had agreed to "continue the consultations" when he arrives in the Cote d'Ivoire capital Abidjan on Wednesday. Cote d'Ivoire has been divided since rebels opposed to Gbagbo seized the northern half of the cocoa-rich country in 2002. The rebels have demanded to be reintegrated into the national army after the polls that are currently scheduled for October, while pro-government militias in the southern part of the country are refusing to disarm. Elections were to have been held last October but were delayed by a year under a UN peace plan providing for disarmament of both rebels and pro-Gbagbo militia, as well as for an update of electoral rolls before the ballot. The UN peacekeeping mission in the country last week announced it was stepping up patrols in the buffer zone that separates the government area from rebel territory, after several deadly clashes. nr/ccr