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the presidency, his party said yesterday.
Gbagbo would not attend tomorrow’s talks with Alassane Ouattara as he wants to stay in the Cote d’lvoire “because of the deterioration of the domestic security situation”, his Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party said.
Gbagbo has resisted international dema-nds, sanctions and other pressure to hand over to Ouattara who claims to have won elections in November. Instead, party leader Pascal Affi N’Guessan and Gbagbo foreign minister Alcide Djedje had left for Addis Ababa to attend the meeting at the African Union headquarters, party public relations official Eric Ane told AFP.
The African Union invited the rivals to talks in its latest bid to end a dispute that has deteriorated into the worst conflict since clashes in 2004, with 370 people killed since mid-December, according to UN figures. – AFP.