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“We will return,” said Benin President Boni Yayi, standing alongside a smiling Gbagbo after around two hours of talks aimed at ending his deadly standoff with the man the world says is president, Alassane Ouattara.
Yayi and the presidents of Sierra Leone and Cape Verde, were in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital Abidjan as mediators for the regional bloc ECOWAS for the second time in a week in a bid to end the bitter crisis. Joining them here Monday was Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, representing the African Union.

EARLIER REPORTS

• ANALYSIS

• African powers in push to end Ivory Coast crisis
• Pressure mounts on Gbagbo after deadline expires
• French-US plot pushing Ivory Coast towards civil war-Gbagbo
• World Bank freezes Ivory Coast loans
• US says time for Ivory Coast’s Gbagbo to go
• Bloodshed feared as Ivory Coast would-be leader calls for march
• Ouattara to occupy government offices Friday
  

“It was useful,” Odinga said of the talks, with the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) having already said that the only alternative to Gbagbo stepping down is sending in troops.

The mediators then headed to meet Ouattara, who is holed up in an Abidjan hotel resort protected by UN forces, before holding another round of talks with Gbagbo. Nothing has emerged of what the leaders are discussing.

Current ECOWAS head, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has said that the body will decide by Tuesday how to handle the impasse, amid unconfirmed reports of mass graves filled with Ouattara supporters since the disputed November 28 election. Gbagbo, who retains control of the army, rejected an ECOWAS attempt last week to persuade him to step down and end the crisis that has sparked international condemnation and fears of a civil war.

Ivory Coast’s Independent Electoral Commission as well as the UN declared Ouattara the winner, while the Constitutional Council said that Gbagbo won.
Both men have been sworn in as president and Gbagbo has said there is an international plot to depose him.
Gbagbo said in his New Year’s address that “we are not going to give up” and that calls for him to quit amounted to “an attempted coup d’etat carried out under the banner of the international community.”

Sierra Leone’s Information Minister Ibrahim Ben Kargbo said ahead of the talks that the envoys’ task was to “give Mr Gbagbo the necessary sweets to make it easy for him to step down.”
Ben Kargbo did not elaborate on what form those inducements would take, but added: “We are trying to create a peaceful exit, for him to leave the office in a respectable manner.”

“We are going strictly by the communique circulated on Christmas Eve clearly stating that President Gbagbo should step down. This is our working document, there is no compromise,” Ben Kargbo told AFP.

West African regional military chiefs met in Abuja last week and set in motion plans to oust Gbagbo if negotiations fail, according to a Nigerian defence spokesman.
A follow-up meeting to fine-tune the “last-resort” plan is scheduled for Mali on January 17 and 18.
Tensions have risen steadily since Gbagbo and Ouattara both claimed victory in the presidential run-off vote that it was hoped would end a decade of crisis in Ivory Coast but has instead sent thousands fleeing the west African nation.

Both men have fired off a series of deadlines at each other, with Ouattara’s latest call for Gbagbo to quit expiring unheeded at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Ouattara’s once-plush hotel is protected by a small contingent of lightly armed former rebel fighters known as the New Forces and 800 United Nations troops equipped with armoured vehicles and re-supplied by helicopter.

It is surrounded by Gbagbo’s well-armed regulars, the Ivory Coast Defence and Security Forces (FDS), but there are fears of a repeat of 2004 violence if Gbagbo’s supporters make good on a threat to send unarmed youths to storm the hotel.

The UN says that at least 179 people have been killed in post-election violence but that it has been unable to fully investigate because of attacks on its personnel, while UN rapporteurs said they feared the violations being committed amounted to “crimes against humanity”.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told Ouattara in telephone talks that UN peacekeeping forces in the west African nation had been told “to do everything possible” to gain access to the alleged sites of mass graves, a spokesman said.-AFP