African leaders in new talks on Ivory Coast crisis

Abidjan: Aid agencies warned of the deteriorating situation in Ivory Coast as five African leaders charged with resolving the presidential dispute prepared a fresh bid at mediation.

As the UN refugee organisation said violence had forced it to halt plans for a camp for displaced people, Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, MSF) said doctors had also been forced to flee the growing conflict.

MSF, in its statement, said one of its team in the western Duekoue district had been forced to halt its work Thursday for safety reasons, as fighting intensified there.

The situation in Abidjan had also deteriorated, it said. MSFappealed to all sides to let the medical workers do their work.

Earlier, Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said Friday the violence had forced it to suspend its activities in Ivory Coast.

Some 70,000 people had been displaced in the west, where there have been heavy clashes around the towns of Duekoue and Blolequin, she added.

"And we're not operating there any more unfortunately due to the fighting and the insecurity," Fleming told reporters in Geneva.

Aid agency access was also being choked off in Abidjan, where the number of displaced people has now reached 200,000, she said.

In the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott meanwhile, five African leaders charged with resolving the Ivory Coast presidential dispute met yesterday ahead of a fresh bid to mediate in the crisis.

They are trying to break a three-month stand-off between Alassane Ouattara, who the international community says one the presidential election -- and incumbent Laurent Gbagbo who has refused to acknowledge defeat.

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was joined by presidents Jacob Zuma from South Africa, Idriss Deby Itno from Chad, Blaise Compaore from Burkina Faso and Tanzania's Jakaya Kikwete.

"This meeting indicates our determination to explore all the options making it possible to resolve in a peaceful and consensual manner the crisis that threatens the survival, even the existence, of Ivory Coast," said Aziz.

The panel was expected to fly to the main city in Ivory Coast, Abidjan, directly after their meeting.