By BBC West Africa Correspondent Mark Doyle, in Abidjan.

The authorities in Ivory Coast have stressed that the continuing controversy over the citizenship of former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, who has declared his intention to stand in Presidential elections next year, is a legal matter, not a political one.

A statement from the Ivorian president's office, in response to BBC reports, said Mr Ouattara was being prosecuted for fraud involving his Ivorian identity documents and that this had nothing to do with his presidential ambitions.

The presidential statement to the BBC, accompanied by a request to publish it as a "right to reply", is the most authoritative expression of the Ivorian authorities' position since the dispute broke out in August.

The statement was made in response to a story published by BBC News Online on 8 December, which reported an arrest warrant for Mr Ouattara and explained the background to the affair.

President Henri Konan Bedie has accused Mr Ouatarra, who is currently outside the country, of being a citizen of neighbouring Burkina Faso and therefore ineligible to stand in the Presidential elections. But Mr Ouatarra insists he is Ivorian and eligible.

The nationality issue has completely dominated the Ivorian domestic political scene for five months, and could also potentially affect the country's normally warm relations with the West.

'Document discrepancy'

The Presidential communique said Mr Ouattara had failed officially to present documents proving his Ivorian identity when he declared himself the Presidential candidate of his Rally for Republicans (RDR) party on 1 August 1999.

Meanwhile, the statement said, the former Prime Minister released two identity documents to the media which bore two different names for his mother.

The discrepancy concerning the two names, the statement continued, and Mr Ouattara's failure to clarify the matter, was the basis for the fraud charges.

The issue, the Presidency said, was not Mr Ouatarra's eligibility to stand in Presidential elections but the legal requirements he had to fulfil in order to lead a political party in Ivory Coast.

Foreign criticism

Ivory Coast's main western partners - including France, the United States and the United Kingdom - have all criticised the legal moves against Mr Ouattara and his RDR party, the main leadership of which has been jailed.

The Western powers said, in effect, that the legal moves against the former prime minister were a cover for mounting an undemocratic political attack.

International human rights groups and legal bodies have also criticised the moves as undemocratic, as have Ivorian politicians from opposition parties other than the RDR.

Alassane Ouattara has said he intends to return to Ivory Coast "at the right time" to pursue what he says is a political struggle against an injustice. The government insists it will pursue its legal moves against him.

While the two sides disagree on whether the theoretical basis for the controversy is legal or political, the outcome of the dispute will clearly be in the political arena because it may determine who stands in the presidential elections due in late 2000.