ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara would form a unity government with members of incumbent Laurent Gbagbo's party, as long as Gbagbo steps down first, the country's ambassador to the United Nations said.
World powers and African states have heaped pressure on Gbagbo to cede the presidency to Ouattara after the provisional results of a November 28 election showed Ouattara won with an 8 percentage point margin.
Gbagbo "has followers, he has competent people in his party. Those people, we are prepared to work with them in the framework of a wide composite cabinet," said Ivory Coast's U.N. envoy Youssoufou Bamba in an interview with the BBC's HARDtalk television news program.
But he said the formation of a unity government was only possible if Gbagbo stepped down first.
"What I am saying is Mr. Ouattara should be recognized by Mr. Gbagbo that he is the legitimate president," he said in the interview, a transcript of which was released by the BBC on Monday.
The proposal comes amid mounting pressure on Gbagbo, who has ruled the world's top cocoa producer since 2000, to leave power and end a standoff that has killed more than 200 people and threatens to rekindle a civil war.
West African regional bloc ECOWAS has threatened Gbagbo with force if he does not leave power, while the United States and the European Union have imposed travel bans on Gbagbo and his inner circle.
SANCTIONS CALL
In an effort to add pressure, Ouattara's government on Monday listed 16 Ivorian treasury, banking and cocoa officials it wants sanctioned for backing Gbagbo.
"The government of (Prime Minister) Guillaume Soro ... (wants) the leaders of these institutions in the banking sector which collaborate with Gbabgo's illegal regime to be brought under ... sanctions," it said in a statement.
Gbagbo's access to state accounts at West Africa's central bank has already been frozen, but he still controls taxes, customs and the lucrative oil and cocoa sectors.
The list included the head of the cocoa regulating body, the head of the local branch of the West African central bank, four treasury officials and local directors of several other banks, including Ecobank Cote D'Ivoire and Standard Chartered.
The election was meant to reunite the former "pearl of West Africa" after the 2002-3 civil war split it into a rebel north and Gbagbo-controlled south, but has instead deepened divisions and raised the specter of a return to open conflict.
ETHNIC CLASHES
Fighting broke out between rival tribes seen as being pro-Gbagbo and pro-Ouattara in volatile west Ivory Coast last week, although local officials say it is now calm and there is nothing to suggest it was directly related to the election.
"The final death toll from these battles is pretty heavy: three deaths in hospital and about 30 outside it," said Dr Teki Moise, in charge of the main hospital in the town of Duekoue.
"We also have 75 wounded, many of them still in hospital in serious condition."
The clashes between Ouattara's Dioula tribe and the Guere, seen as pro-Gbagbo, raised the alarm amongst U.N. mission workers who have long feared an electoral dispute could degenerate into ethnic violence in west Ivory Coast, a tinderbox of militia groups and rival tribes.
Some 15,000 have been internally displaced by the fighting, said a local priest who was sheltering people in his church.
"There are a lot of women and children, including some pregnant women," said Father Cyprien Ahoure, head of Duekue Catholic mission. "We have a shortage of food, clothing and medicines. Living conditions are very difficult."
More than 20,000 Ivorians in the west have fled across the border to Liberia since the dispute flared up, fearing a return to civil war.
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