Ivory Coast Crisis: Burkina Takes Over From Ghana

Burkina president sets "new initiatives" to bring peace to ICoast

BOBO-DIOULASSO, Burkina Faso- Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore announced "new initiatives" devised with his Ivorian counterpart Laurent Gbagbo to wrest Ivory Coast from a 14-month political and military crisis.

The west African neighbors have moved in recent weeks to repair the breach in their relations which began with a September 2002 rebellion that Ivory Coast has long-suggested was secretly backed by Burkina Faso.

Wednesday's meeting was the second in as many weeks between the two leaders in an effort to soothe tensions reignited in October by Burkinabe accusations that elements in the Ivory Coast supported an abortive coup against the Ouagadougou government.

The two had a first meeting in months at a tense summit of heads of state in Ghana on November 11 that was also focused on the Ivorian crisis.

"Our two countries will not only work to apply these initiatives to reestablish peace in Ivory Coast but we will also undertake new initiatives to reinforce bilateral cooperation," Compaore told reporters after the three-hour meeting in Burkina Faso's second city Bobo Dioulasso, just across the northern Ivorian border.

"We are very pleased to receive our brother, who offered great insight into the development of the reconciliation process that we support mightily," said Compaore, who is said to wield great influence with the rebels whose uprising plunged Ivory Coast into 10 months of civil war.

Compaore also expressed hope that the Ivorian government would meet Thursday or Friday to discuss a bill reforming property laws that ban foreigners from owning land in the world's top cocoa producer.

Gbagbo departed for Abidjan without comment.

Though a ceasefire has held since July, Ivory Coast remains divided between the government-run south and the rebel-held north, while a unity government has foundered since the former rebels quit in September amid accusations that Gbagbo was hoarding power by refusing to implement a January peace accord.

The repercussions of the 14-month crisis have extended beyond the Ivorian borders, shattering not only an economy that was envied across the region but damaging the financial fortunes of landlocked neighbors, who relied on its port to move its goods and its stability to provide employment for millions.

Thousands of tonnes of goods from Burkina Faso have sat at the port in the Ivorian economic capital Abidjan since the uprising, while an estimated three million Burkinabe nationals have returned home empty-handed.

The Malian presidency meanwhile said a meeting between Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure and Gbagbo, initially to be held at Sikasso, southern Mali, would now be held in the capital Bamako on Friday, the Malian leader's spokesman Seydou Sissouma said.

The meeting had originally been scheduled for Monday, then Wednesday.

Compaore and Gbagbo had met in Bamako, in December last year, to discuss the Ivorian crisis in the presence of their Malian counterpart.