LOME, June 19 (AFP) - President Laurent Gbagbo arrived in Lome Saturday for discussions with his Togolese counterpart General Gnassingbe Eyadema that are to kick off a weekend of talks among west African leaders about the 20-month crisis in Ivory Coast.
Once a beacon of stability with a cocoa-based economy envied across the troubled and impoverished region, Ivory Coast has been wracked with chaos since a failed coup against Gbagbo sparked a civil war.
Mindful of the ramifications of Ivory Coast's unrest for the rest of the region, west African leaders have since September 2002 tried to mediate with both the Gbagbo government and the rebels who have held the country's north since their uprising.
Eyadema, the longest-ruling leader in Africa, is seen as an ally of Gbagbo and has been pressed into service by the Ivorian political elite to get more involved in resolving the conflict.
The crisis has caused Ivory Coast's economy to contract by more than three percent and has led it to default on World Bank loan repayments.
The lender this week announced it would suspend payment of loans aimed at HIV/AIDS and education programs for Ivory Coast, which has been without a nationwide public infrastructure since the early days of the war.
Gbagbo was given a red carpet welcome at Lome's international airport by a massive Togolese government delegation led by Eyadema himself, as well as dancers and a military honor guard.
The leaders were to be whisked immediately to the presidential palace for closed-door private talks. It was not known whether they would emerge to deliver a public statement.
Gbagbo and Eyadema were Sunday to travel together to Abuja, where the heads of state from Gabon, Ghana, Niger and Nigeria are waiting to continue the dialogue.
They, too, have played crucial roles in efforts to reconcile Ivory Coast in the run-up to elections planned for October 2005 and have committed troops to patrol a ceasefire since last year, first under the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and now with a UN operation that began in April.
A delegation from the UN Security Council was Wednesday to visit Ivory Coast to assess progress by the mission amid new tensions sparked by tit-for-tat breaches of the confidence zone stretching 400 kilometers (250 miles) across the country's center.
A peace pact signed in January last year lies in tatters, with little hope in Ivory Coast of reviving it amid mounting ethnic harassment and spurts of violence including a brutal state-sanctioned crackdown on an opposition rally in March.
A UN report said at least 120 people were killed in clashes that lasted for several days that had been "carefully planned and executed" by security forces under orders from "the highest state authorities".
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