Ministers not reinstated, opposition in Gabon for talks

Cote d'Ivoire's opposition leaders, disappointed by President Laurent Gbagbo's decision not to reinstate three of their ministers, held talks on Friday with Gabon leader Omar Bongo, who is trying to help the feuding Ivorian sides out of their political impasse. Bongo, one of Africa's longest-serving presidents, is trying to pave the way for a regional summit to resolve the 22-month crisis in Cote d'Ivoire, which has been split into a rebel-held north and a government-controlled south since civil war broke out in September 2002. Bongo hosted Gbagbo last weekend, received presidential loyalists earlier in the week and on Friday sat down with opposition and rebel leaders in Gabon's capital, Libreville. Friday's meeting came the day after Gbagbo refused to allow three opposition ministers that he sacked in May back into the power-sharing government, prolonging the political paralysis which began in March when opposition members boycotted meetings in protest at the deaths of more than 100 of their supporters during a rally. "The President said that it was impossible for him to go back on his decision and asked that the parties concerned propose alternative candidates as replacements," read a joint statement issed late Thursday by Gbagbo and the G7 opposition alliance after two days of talks in the capital Abidjan. Guillaume Soro, one of the sacked ministers and leader of the New Forces rebel group, refused to attend the Abidjan talks, saying Gbagbo was stalling for time so he could prepare for war. But he did fly to Libreville to meet Bongo. "It is because Abidjan is enemy territory that we refused to go there, while Libreville is neutral terrain," a rebel spokesman in the northern town of Bouake told Reuters.