Ivory Coast wants foreign intervention

The rebels say they are ready to resume fighting

An Ivory Coast presidential aide has called on the international community to intervene militarily to resolve the conflict with rebels who have taken control of the north of the country.

One should not wait for another Rwanda or another Sierra Leone to happen

Toussaint Alain

President Laurent Gbagbo's adviser in Europe, Toussaint Alain, said France, the United States and the European Union must intervene because regional mediation efforts were deadlocked.

The rebels have threatened to walk out of the talks in Togo, following the discovery of 120 bodies in a mass grave who they say were killed by government forces.

Both sides have accused each other of preparing to resume fighting, and government forces have retaken a key cocoa-producing town seized by a new rebel group at the weekend.

'Destabilise'

The presidential adviser said that military involvement from Western countries may be the only way of ending the conflict ignited by an attempted coup nearly three months ago.

"One should not wait for another Rwanda or another Sierra Leone to happen before they intervene," Mr Toussaint said in Madrid.

He said that President Laurent Gbagbo's attempts to end the uprising through talks with the rebels had so far failed.

"The rebels don't want a solution, they want the destruction of our country, as well as to destabilise other countries in the region," he said.

Rebel negotiators said on Tuesday they were postponing the decision on pulling out of the talks with the government until after a meeting with the mediator, Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema.

They have threatened to walk out of the talks because the Economic Community of West African States, which has been mediating between the two sides, has not publicly condemned what the rebels call a massacre of civilians.

Mr Toussaint said France, in particular, had a historic responsibility as a former colonial power.

France has deployed some 1,200 troops in Ivory Coast, where it has been monitoring a truce which held for six weeks until fighting broke out in the west, with the emergence of new rebel groups.

A West African force is supposed to replace the French troops, but no date has been set.

Recruitment drive

Government forces have now retaken the town of Blolekin, in the west of the country, French soldiers have confirmed.

The army is now pushing rebels back towards the Liberian border, Ivorian military sources were quoted as saying.

On Tuesday, thousands of young men volunteered to fight for the Ivorian Government against the rebels.

Gbagbo and Eyadema met on Monday

The government's recruitment drive has been postponed to Thursday, because of the huge number of volunteers who have come forward.

On Thursday, Mr Gbagbo is also expected to meet the leaders of the main political parties in Abidjan to discuss the crisis.

The United Kingdom and Belgium have joined several other western countries in advising their citizens to leave Ivory Coast because of the escalating crisis.

At least 400 people have been killed since the 19 September uprising by disgruntled soldiers, and hundreds of thousands displaced by the fighting.