South African President Thabo Mbeki, the mediator in the conflict in the Cote d'ivoire
has called all sides to an urgent meeting in Pretoria, "to take the peace process forward," his spokesman confirmed Friday.
An Ivorian opposition party said on Thursday it had received
a letter from Mbeki calling all parties to a meeting in the South African capital some time during March.
"The president has indeed sent out a letter of invitation to the political parties in the (Ivory Coast), requesting them to come to Pretoria as a matter of urgency to take the peace process forward," said Bheki Khumalo, using the French name for the former west African powerhouse.
"All the players for the resolution of the crisis in the Cote
d'ivoire has been invited," Khumalo told AFP, but could not say when the letter was sent or whether a date had been set for the meeting.
An Ivorian opposition party said on Thursday it had received the invitation from South Africa to discuss the crisis in the former French colony, divided between Government forces and
rebels and where tensions have been rising in recent weeks.
Khumalo's confirmation comes two days after South African Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota visted rebel National Forces (FN) in their central stronghold of Bouake.
The FN subsequently stated that Lekota said Mbeki would visit Cote d'ivoire "very soon" after the rebels and the South African minister had talks about legal issues arising from the peace and security process, and political measures that went through parliament in December.
The opposition Rally of Republicans (RDR) has announced that Mbeki had sent letters to President Laurent Gbagbo and exiled RDR leader and former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, who lives in Paris, among others.
One trigger to the current political and ethnic crisis in Cote d'ivoire was the exclusion of Ouattara, a northerner whose full Ivorian parentage has been questioned by Abidjan authorities, as
a candidate in elections.
Asked if Ouattara had been called to the talks, Khumalo said "it is my understanding that all parties had been invited."
An official in Gbagbo's office on Thursday also said "it had not been informed."
Invitations to the meeting also reportedly went to FN leader Guillaume Soro, Prime Minister Seydou Diarra and former President Henri Konan Bedie who heads the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast, formerly the sole legal party, an official in the RDR told AFP.