Envoys tackle Ivory Coast political woes,pollution

ABIDJAN, Sep 9 (Reuters) International mediators in Ivory Coast tried to unravel a political deadlock blocking elections in the war-divided state as health experts tackled a toxic waste emergency that brought down the government.

The surprise resignation of Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny's cabinet on Wednesday injected more uncertainty into an already tangled political outlook for the West African country, which has been split in two since a brief 2002-2003 civil war.

Banny's government quit over a toxic waste scandal in which poisonous fuel slops unloaded from a foreign ship in Abidjan port and dumped around the city killed three people and made some 3,000 ill with vomiting, nausea and breathing difficulties.

Ambassadors and diplomats who are overseeing a faltering United Nations peace plan in Ivory Coast met yesterday in Abidjan to try to unblock delays that have forced the postponement of elections due by an October 31 deadline.

President Laurent Gbagbo, his political opponents and rebels who control the north of the world's top cocoa producer are locked in disagreement over how to proceed to the polls.

''Our objective remains the same: to translate into reality the different commitments that aim for a rapid restoration of peace and stability in Ivory Coast, through the holding of free, fair and transparent elections,'' the UN mission chief in Ivory Coast, Pierre Schori, told the diplomatic meeting in Abidjan.

He also announced that UN officials and International Health Organisation experts were visiting the sites around the city where the poisonous waste, reported to contain hydrogen sulphide and other toxic chemicals, had been dumped.

French experts were arriving yesterday to help with the analysis and clean-up of the noxious black sludge, whose fumes had wafted across the city, forcing many to don paper masks.

Banny, named by international mediators in December to lead the country to elections, says he hopes to form a new government next week. But the rebels and political opponents of Gbagbo are threatening not to participate in the new transitional cabinet whose task will be to organise the polls.

RISK OF RENEWED WAR Some analysts are warning that the incessant delays to the elections risk opening up a political vacuum that could plunge the former French colony back into civil war.

The polls were already postponed from last October, when Gbagbo was given an extended mandate of up to 12 more months in power under the UN peace blueprint.

''This second election postponement is part of the deliberate strategy by (Ivorian) political leaders who do not want a peace beyond their control,'' said Gilles Yabi, an analyst with the Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group.

''They are trying to assess the power and engagement of the international community,'' he added.

An ICG report issued on Thursday warned of ''the real possibility of civil war'' in Ivory Coast if the international community did not take steps to break the deadlock.

African leaders are due to meet at UN headquarters in New York on September 20 to discuss how the country should be governed after Gbagbo's latest extended mandate expires on October 31.

The rebels have said they oppose him staying on any longer.

The toxic waste which precipitated this week's political crisis was unloaded from a Panamanian-registered ship, the Probo Koala, at Abidjan port on August 19 and then dumped in at least eight open air sites, including the city's main rubbish dump.

UN humanitarian officials said approximately 3,000 people had sought treatment as a result of inhaling the fumes.

Reuters AB VV0939