Rebels in war-divided Ivory Coast said they would not begin the first stage of a disarmament process due to have started on Sunday until laws adopted by President Laurent Gbagbo conformed to the country’s peace plan. A timetable agreed this month by all sides in the West African state said 40,500 rebels should have begun moving into cantonment sites on Sunday and have stayed there until they eventually gave their weapons to UN peacekeepers in September.

“According to the timetable that we all signed, it states clearly that the laws must be passed before we start moving into cantonment sites,” Karim Ouattara, operations chief of the rebel New Forces, told Reuters after last-minute talks in Abidjan.“Technically we are ready, but it’s now up to the politicians ... If the laws don’t conform, this operation can’t take place,” he said. Gbagbo passed laws on nationality, citizenship rights and the composition of an independent electoral commission earlier this month, saying he was meeting a key rebel demand in doing so ahead of disarmament and an October presidential election.

But opposition parties said he had skewed the bills to ensure his victory in the polls and said they would call on South African President Thabo Mbeki, mediating in the crisis, to intervene to ensure they were amended.“(It) is certain that we can’t expect cantonment tomorrow. We’re waiting first for the mediation,” said Ivorian army chief Philippe Mangou as he left the meeting with rebel leaders at the National Disarmament Commission headquarters in Abidjan.

Yves Bouchard, a police commissioner in the West African country’s UN mission who took part in the talks, said the two sides had at least agreed on the technicalities of the disarmament process. “Technically speaking, it could all be done tomorrow,” he said.The world’s top cocoa grower has been divided since civil war blew out of a failed coup in 2002 and left the country split into a rebel-held north and government-run south. About 10,000 United Nations and French peacekeepers keep the sides apart.The Sunday deadline for the first stage of the disarmament process was part of the latest deal meant to reunite the country and allow the formation of a new national army in time for presidential elections set for October 30.

Peter MURPHY</B>