South African President Thabo Mbeki traveled to Cote d'Ivoire's rebel-held north Sunday in a redoubled peace effort for West Africa's war-divided economic hub. 

Mbeki, an emissary of the African Union, was meeting with rebel leaders in Bouake yesterday after talks in the government-held south with Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and others.

"We want to clear the way for a better life for everyone in Cote d'Ivoire," Mbeki told crowds who cheered his arrival in the rebel stronghold.

"I agree with you, that once one has reached an accord, it must be applied," the South African leader said, in a reference to stalemated power-sharing deals between the north and south.

International leaders have stepped up pressure for resolution in Cote d'Ivoire since last month when Cote d'Ivoire warplanes bombed a French peacekeeping post in the course of three days of renewed government attacks on the north.

The Cote d'Ivoire airstrike killed nine French peacekeepers and an American aid worker, and prompted brief, unprecedented battles between Cote d'Ivoire's forces and those of its former colonial ruler, France.

France led an evacuation of more than 9,000 Westerners in the violent protests that erupted afterward.

Mbeki and others are pushing both sides to make good on never-implemented power-sharing deals meant to reunify the country and lead it toward elections.

On Saturday, encouraged by Mbeki, Gbagbo offered a concession - saying he would ask the National Assembly to review the eligibility requirements for the presidency.

Specifically, Gbagbo will ask the assembly to consider dropping a constitutional requirement that any presidential candidate must be born of Ivorian-born parents.

(China Daily December 6, 2004)