West Africa leaders call crisis talks

MPCI rebels control the northern half of Ivory Coast

The heads of at least eight West African countries have called a series of emergency meetings to try to find a solution to the conflict in Ivory Coast.

After a high-level summit in Togo on Monday, the leaders of Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Liberia announced further meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

More French troops - with orders to shoot anyone seriously violating a ceasefire in the country - arrived as the leaders talked, making the French contingent the largest Paris has deployed in Africa since the 1980s.

Countries involved in summit meetings

Nigeria

Senegal

Liberia

Ghana

Togo

Guinea Bissau

Mali

Niger

France has offered to hold a summit to help end the conflict in Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer and a key transportation hub for several landlocked West African countries.

Representatives of the Ivorian Government and the main rebel group the MPCI were present during Monday's summit in the northern Togolese town of Kara, but they did not take part in the talks.

A squabble did break out, however, over the seating arrangement at a music performance attended by the parties and the West African presidents.

The chief Ivorian Government negotiator threatened to walk out when he saw that a rebel spokesman was sitting closer to the West African leaders than he was, the French news agency AFP reported.

Stalled

The Ivorian peace negotiations in Togo, sponsored by the regional body Ecowas, have made little progress since an armed uprising began in September.

At the weekend, the first contingent of reinforcements for the French military mission in Ivory Coast arrived, despite a threat by the MPCI to fight against them.

Some 150 paratroopers were reported to have landed at the international airport in Abidjan.

The 1,200-strong French deployment is to be boosted by 500 troops in all.

France has broadened the mandate of its soldiers in Ivory Coast, authorising them to enforce - rather than just monitor - an October ceasefire between government forces and the rebels who now control the north of the country.

Rebel anger

On Friday, a spokesman for the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI) Guillaume Soro accused the troops of deviating from their peacekeeping mission, and demanded their withdrawal.

French reinforcements have arrived to 'enforce' peace

The BBC's Paul Welsh in Ivory Coast's commercial capital, Abidjan says the MPCI believes the French are taking sides with the government.

At least 400 people have been killed since the uprising by disgruntled soldiers.

Since then, new rebel factions have emerged in the west of the country.

A quarter of a million people have now been displaced by the worsening war in Ivory Coast - half to neighbouring countries.