President Kufuor confers with President Gbagbo

Akosombo, Oct.19, GNA - ECOWAS Chairman President John Agyekum Kufuor on Sunday held closed door discussions with the Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo at Akosombo as part of the efforts towards restoration of peace in Cote d'Ivoire.
The discussions, which lasted for nearly 90 minutes was a follow-up to several peace discussions aimed towards finding solutions to the disagreement that had arisen out of the power sharing agreement for Cote D'Ivoire which was brokered in Accra on March 8.
President Gbagbo, who was on a day's visit for the discussions to resolve some pertinent issues that had arisen out of the implementation of the Accra Accord, told newsmen after the meeting that the peace process in Cote d'Ivoire was the best on the African Continent. He said, while war had raged on in some countries after peace had been brokered in Cote d'Ivoire, the war was now over.
"We are now in the process of managing the consequences of the war. What we are doing now is, each party in the conflict is accusing each other and nobody wants to lose in such a situation", he added.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Minister of Foreign Affairs said President Kufuor had over the week-end held discussions with all the parties involved in the Ivorian crisis in order to increase the momentum in the peace process initiated in Accra.

He said President Kufuor intended to give whatever he could to give the peace process the opportunity to succeed.

Nana Akufo-Addo said in such conflicts, people had different ambitions and goals they sought but with regard to the Ivorian crisis, none of the parties had resorted to arms after the Accra Accord was signed. The Foreign Minister said the target for the parties was a free and fair elections in October 2005 for democratic rule, and the signs towards such an achievement were encouraging.

"We believe the momentum continued to be there and ECOWAS would do whatever within its means to have the peace required in Cote d'Ivoire. The Marcussis and Accra Accords would be accelerated when the differences on the political, nationality, eligibility and other issues had been addressed", he said.

President Gbagbo had since returned home. 19 Oct. 03