French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie arrived in Abidjan late Tuesday for talks with Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and to see in the new year in with French troops stationed in the troubled west African nation.Alliot-Marie arrived from Mali and told waiting reporters that she brought with her a message of support from President Jacques Chirac for the 4,000 French troops operating mainly in the central Ivorian town of Yamoussoukro.
Ivory Coast government and rebel troops met Tuesday to discuss progress in efforts to bring a definitive end to 15 months of civil war here, sources close to the meeting said.
Hoping to reduce tensions crippling the world's top cocoa producer since a failed coup in September 2002 erupted into civil war, both sides had spent two weeks dismantling roadblocks and pulling back heavy weaponry from a 640-kilometer (400-mile) ceasefire line running from west to east.
The so-called "pre-disarmament" phase ended December 25 -- a symbolic date for the country that had spent Christmas 2002 under curfew.
Guns have been mostly silent since a ceasefire was declared in July, but Ivory Coast remains fraught by geographic and ethnic divisions that have left the north and west in the hands of former rebels and the south controlled by the army of President Gbagbo.
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