New doubts over Ivory Coast talks

A vanguard of West African troops has arrived

The main rebel group in Ivory Coast has condemned the French army for killing rebel fighters from a different group on Monday.

A spokesman for the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI) said that the clashes "seriously compromised" peace talks scheduled to be held in Paris next week.

There was a sort of joy and satisfaction when they spoke of the deaths of young Ivorians killed by French bullets

Sidiki Konate
MPCI rebels

Earlier, regional leaders in West Africa drew up a plan to put all peacekeeping operations in Ivory Coast under United Nations control.

Ivory Coast has been divided into a rebel-held north and a government-controlled south for four months.

Troops from former colonial power France are monitoring a ceasefire between the army and the MPCI but have clashed with new, smaller rebel groups near the Liberian border in the west.

Respect

The French said they had killed some 30 rebels after being attacked near Duekoue on Monday, while nine of its men were wounded.

"There was a sort of joy and satisfaction when they spoke of the deaths of young Ivorians killed by French bullets," MPCI spokesman Sidiki Konate told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

He said that the MPCI would still go to the Paris talks but said the French must respect the western rebel groups, if it was to be a credible mediator.

The French must not become government mercenaries, he said.

French troops were originally due to be replaced by a West African peace force but now the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) has called on the United Nations to take over peacekeeping operations.

'Blue helmets'

President Abdoulaye Wade, of Senegal, said the proposal was for French troops already in Ivory Coast along with soldiers from the regional peacekeeping force to wear UN blue helmets and work together.

Senegal holds the rotating presidency of the Ecowas.

The rebels want to overthrow President Gbagbo

Mr Wade told a news conference in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, that regional efforts to resolve the Ivory Coast crisis had failed - but he was confident a peace conference in Paris next week would bring results.

One of the western rebel groups, the Popular Movement of Ivory Coast's Far West (MPIGO), initially said it was prepared to take part in peace talks later this month in Paris, but now says it will not be going.

The talks, due to open on 15 January, were brokered by French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, who met government and rebel officials last week.

About 2,500 French troops are currently in Ivory Coast.

They are enforcing the uneasy ceasefire between the government and MPCI, while holding back western rebels who do not consider themselves bound by the truce.