France expressed the willingness on Friday to repair its relationship with Cote d'Ivoire, a former French colony in western Africa.

"It is time to turn over the page when the two countries have tense relations, cure the injury and face the future," Henri Bentegeat, French chief of defense staff, told a news conference.

Bentegeat, who arrived here Wednesday for a two-day visit, also told reporters that his country fully supports the mediation of South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been meeting government and rebel sides to speed up progress on a French-brokered peace deal to reunite the country after its civil war.

"It is important in the framework of the plan proposed by the South African president that gestures are made on both sides," Bentegeat said, urging the rebels to make active reactions as the government has already showed its gestures.

"It is also important that the (rebel) New Forces commit themselves to the path of disarmament," he added.

Talking about the French troops in Cote d'Ivoire, Bentegeat said the French army will stay in the former colony for as long as the West African country's government and the international community want it to.

"(We) don't have any national aim other than that fixed by the international community. We have no hidden agenda," he added.

Relations between France and Cote d'Ivoire soured in early November when France wiped out the country's air force after the African country's planes bombed a French military base, killing nine peacekeepers.

Mobs rampaged through the streets of the economic capital Abidjan for several days, attacking foreigners and looting their homes and businesses, prompting more than 8,000 mostly French expatriates to flee the country.

Paris has said its soldiers killed some 20 people during the clashes as French troops rescued foreigners stuck in their homes. But the Cote d'Ivoirean officials say the figure is far higher.

(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2004)