Obasanjo, Kufuor expected in Abidjan on Thursday

The presidents of Nigeria and Ghana are expected to visit Cote d'Ivoire on Thursday for talks with President Laurent Gbagbo on urgent moves to jump-start the country's stalled peace process, diplomatic sources said. The sources in Abidjan and the Nigerian capital Abuja told IRIN that President John Kufuor of Ghana and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria would press Gbagbo to address three key concerns of the rebels who have occupied the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire for the past 13 months. These were: - Reform of the constitution to allow Ivorians with a foreign parent 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. If Gbagbo agreed to early legislative action on these issues, ECOWAS would try to convene a reconciliation summit between him and rebel leaders in the Ghanaian capital Accra next week, they added. Ghana hosted two such meetings earlier this year to shore up the faltering peace process in Cote d'Ivoire. "If the president agrees with these proposals then next week, there could be an Accra III meeting in Ghana," one source said. The planned one-day visit to Abidjan by the Ghanaian and Nigerian leaders follows two weeks of intense diplomatic activity in West Africa to prevent Cote d'Ivoire drifting back into open conflict. The rebels signed a peace agreement with Gbagbo in January and joined a broad-based government of national reconciliation in April. However, they pulled out on 23 September and suspended plans to disarm and demobilise in protest at what they said was Gbagbo's refusal to delegate effective power to cabinet ministers. Over the past two weeks Gbagbo has visited Ghana and Nigeria for talks on the impasse, while rebel leader Guillaume Soro has undertaken a tour of Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. Ivorian opposition leader Alassane Ouattara and former president Henri Konan Bedie have also been involved in the diplomatic merry-go-round. One diplomat said a potential obstacle to bringing Gbagbo and rebels together again was the president's insistence that the legislative measures demanded by the rebels and provided for in the January peace agreement, be put to a referendum. This would be virtually impossible to hold at present since the country has been split in two since civil war broke out in September last year. "How can a referendum be organised while the disarmament has not started yet," one diplomat mused.