Ex-president of Cote d'Ivoire HenriKonan Bedie returned home on Sunday after one-year self-imposed exile in Paris, French TF1 news channel quoted an airport source as saying.

He was greeted by Ivorian Prime Minister Seydou Diarra at Abidjan airport.

He took power in Cote d'Ivoire in 1993 and was overthrown in a coup in 1999 in the former French colony, which is the world's biggest cocoa producer.

His return is ahead of the planned presidential election in Cote d'Ivoire scheduled for Oct. 30, though UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said it was almost impossible because of unpreparedness.

He is the candidate of the Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire, one of two main opposition parties to current President Laurent Gbagbo.

Cote d'Ivoire was split in two with New Forces rebels in the north and President Gbagbo's government in the south after a failed coup against Gbagbo in September 2002.

(Xinhua News Agency September 12, 2005)