African ministers try to break ivory ban deadlock

THE HAGUE, June 13 (Reuters) African ministers at a UN wildlife conference tried to break a deadlock today over elephant ivory in a dispute between countries seeking to extend a 1989 export ban and others wanting trade.

Talks late yesterday collapsed over a draft compromise to allow new one-off sales of 140 tonnes of ivory by four southern African nations, where elephant numbers are rising, and then no more in the next 9 years.

Some ministers at the 171-nation talks by the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) argue more sales would spur illegal killings that could further endanger elephants.

Others say tightly limited trade can help by ploughing cash into conservation and into building schools or hospitals.

''We don't know how it will finish. They've all given some ground,'' one delegate said of the meeting of African ministers.

Kenya and Mali came to the June 3-15 meeting demanding a 20-year extension of a ban on all ivory exports from Africa, saying that poaching was killing 19,000 elephants a year on the continent.

Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa argue their elephant populations are on the rise and want to allow regular trade to benefit remote communities where elephants increasingly come into conflict with farmers.

Southern African nations say they get ivory from animals who die from natural causes, from seizures from poachers and from licensed killings of ''problem elephants''.

Kenya's delegation, led by Tourism and Wildlife Minister Morris Dzoro, rejected the draft deal overnight arguing that it also left the door open to exports by Zambia and Tanzania.

Hit by decades of hunting and expanding human populations, elephants number about 470,000-685,000 in Africa against millions decades ago. Populations in southern Africa, however, have been rising in recent years.

The dispute over management of the world's biggest land mammal is blow to African states, which usually seek to present a united front on the world stage. One option was to abandon all discussion until the next CITES meeting, due in 2010.

Since the 1989 ban, a one-off sale of 50 tonnes of ivory, used for carved objects and jewellery, was approved in 1997 and another last week of 60 tonnes to Japan.

The rejected draft proposal would also allow export permits for new one-off sales totalling 140 tonnes -- 70 tonnes from Botswana, 15 from Namibia, 40 from South Africa and 15 from Zimbabwe in the next nine years.

''The proceeds of the trade are used exclusively for elephant conservation and community development programmes within or adjacent to the elephant range,'' it said.

REUTERS SM VC1538