UN council OKs short force renewal in Ivory Coast

By Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Security Council on Thursday sought to nudge Ivory Coast into holding much-delayed elections soon by extending the mandate of U.N. peacekeepers there by four months instead of the usual six.

The West African nation that is the world's top cocoa producer has missed a series of deadlines for a presidential poll originally due in 2005 to resolve divisions that fueled a 2002-03 civil war that split the country in two.

Ivory Coast authorities, who have blamed technical problems including difficulties in drawing up a voters' list, now say they aim to stage the vote in late February or early March.

President Laurent Gbagbo, whose mandate expired in 2005, has denied charges that he is delaying the poll.

In a unanimous resolution, the 15-nation council called on Ivory Coast to publish a final voters' list and announce the official date of the election's first round.

It extended the mandate of the U.N. mission UNOCI, which includes just over 8,000 troops and police, until May 31 "to support the organization in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) of free, fair, open and transparent elections."

The polls are seen as vital if Ivory Coast is to reclaim its position as West Africa's economic hub, lost after the civil war, and reform its cocoa sector, which supplies 40 percent of the world market.

FRENCH PUSH FOR VOTE