Military

DATE=01/23/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IVORY COAST/TALKS (L)

NUMBER=2-298702

BYLINE=PAUL MILLER

DATELINE=PARIS

CONTENT=

INTRO: With one day remaining in their talks, negotiators at Ivory Coast peace talks outside Paris have yet to reach a final agreement. Paul Miller reports from Paris, the Ivorian president is en route to Paris for a summit meeting with French and African heads of state, and the negotiators may leave it to the summit participants to resolve the final issues.

TEXT: The closed-door talks in a Paris suburb continue under a news blackout, and the French Foreign Ministry is refusing any comment, saying the talks are in the most sensitive phase.

There are indications that the most urgent question, whether there will be early elections, has not even been discussed. The rebels have demanded that President Laurent Gbagbo step down and call elections, but he has refused.

The issue may be left to a summit that begins Saturday in Paris. Mr. Gbagbo is expected to be there, as are other west African heads of state. The head of the African Union, South African President Thabo Mbeki, U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan and French President Jacques Chirac are to preside over the summit.

Representatives of the rebel factions at the talks are believed to have proposed a compromise, whereby Mr. Gbagbo would continue as president, but would share power with a prime minister who is not in the ruling coalition.

There has reportedly already been agreement on other issues behind the four-month-old civil war, including the easing of requirements for citizenship, for running for parliament and the presidency and for owning land.

But there is no final deal, and now fighting has resumed in Ivory Coast. France has again called on all sides to respect the cease-fire signed just before the peace talks began last week. (Signed)

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