Ouattara to run for Ivorian presidency

Last week's violence was the worst for a year

The main opposition leader in Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, has said he is planning to run for president at the next election, due in 2005.

Mr Ouattara told Reuters news agency that the decision on Saturday by the authorities to grant him citizenship would help ease political tension in the country, ahead of the municipal elections on 7 July.

Correspondents say the debate over his nationality has poisoned politics in Ivory Coast for a decade, splitting the country along ethnic and religious lines.

Mr Ouattara, a former prime minister from the Muslim north, was barred from key presidential and parliamentary elections in 2000 on the grounds that he was granted citizenship of neighbouring Burkina Faso.

He previously headed the West Africa Central Bank representing Burkina Faso.

The courts banned Ouattara from running in elections

"I'm satisfied and happy at obtaining my nationality certificate. The judges have done the right thing," Mr Ouattara said.

The decision does not mean that Mr Ouattara will necessarily be allowed to challenge President Laurent Gbagbo in an election.

The country's constitution bars people who have held the citizenship of another country from standing as presidential candidates.

But the decision to grant Mr Ouattara citizenship has still angered Mr Gbagbo's supporters, causing protests on the streets of Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan, on Saturday night.

The issue has led to repeated street battles between supporters of Mr Ouattara's Rally of Republicans (RDR) and those of Mr Gbagbo that have left hundreds of people dead.

Muslim north

Many of Mr Ouattara's supporters are Muslims from the north of the country.

They complain that the government has been trying to deprive many of them of citizenship by claiming that they are foreigners.

Ivory Coast is one of West Africa's most developed economies and is host to many thousands of people - mainly Muslim - from Mali and Burkina Faso.

RDR complaints have led to increasing tension with government supporters from the mainly Christian south.

At least six people were killed and more than 30 wounded in two days of clashes since violence flared at an election rally in the central town of Daloa last week.

A curfew is to remain in place until 15 July, a week after local elections, and public meetings have been banned until 3 July.

A reconciliation committee met last year to call on the government to grant nationality to Mr Ouattara.

The opposition leader has consistently maintained he is Ivorian, but his opponents alleged that his nationality certificate was a forgery.