South Africa warned Ivory Coast’s civil war foes on that they risked sanctions if they blocked moves towards peace, raising the stakes as the West African nation’s president and rebels arrived for talks. South African President Thabo Mbeki hopes to revive a deal he brokered in April to end the conflict in the world’s top cocoa grower. The so-called Pretoria accord has been paralysed by political squabbling and rows about disarmament. “You will remember that on the 6th of April these leaders who are here signed an agreement to take the process ... forward,” Mbeki said at the beginning of the talks.

“We will therefore go through each one of the points in that agreement, and take whatever decisions may be necessary in order to take forward this peace process.” Both rebels and army chiefs in Ivory Coast failed to meet a Monday deadline for laying down their weapons, an essential step ahead of a presidential poll scheduled for October. A senior South African diplomat took a firmer line as the talks involving Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and opposition leaders Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouattara got under way.

“We have seen no progress despite excellent initiatives,” South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told reporters in a separate briefing. “The important thing is that in the (UN) secretary-general’s report, he has made it quite clear that the possibility of sanctions against anybody who is obstructing the processes of the Pretoria Agreement is a reality,” Pahad said. “This must be quite clear to the signatories that the UN is losing patience, too, about the non-movement on agreements taken by all the parties,” he said.

<B>Endless frustrations</B>

The former French colony plunged into war when rebels attempted a coup in 2002 and seized the northern part of the country. A string of peace deals have failed to end fighting and reunite the country, which has reeled between war and peace for years. After a burst of euphoria following the April deal, frustrations have been mounting. Rebels have accused Gbagbo of plotting to attack and the cocoa-rich west is on edge after scores of people were massacred in ethnic violence.

Pahad said South Africa did not expect any new deals but hoped the talks would identify and resolve existing problems. “We want to see how we can ... help them move to implement the Pretoria Agreement, no new negotiations,” Pahad said. Rebels say they will not disarm until pro-government militias lay down their weapons. The militias say a wave of ethnic violence in the west, in which at least 100 people were killed, proves it is not safe to give up their guns.

There has been some progress: Gbagbo has said northern opposition leader Alassane Ouattara can run for election despite a law that excluded him previously. Some hope the 10,000 UN and French peacekeepers patrolling a demilitarised buffer zone between the two sides will be able to guarantee security in the run-up to the October 30 polls. But the head of the UN mission has said he needs more troops.

<B>Alain NGONO</B>