Ivory Coast Rebels Arrive in Ghana for Talks

ACCRA (Reuters) - Ivory Coast rebels landed in Ghana on Friday for talks with their country's new prime minister, but ruled out compromise on a shaky peace accord and warned that a deadline for renewed civil war still stood.

The rebels left their stronghold of Bouake on Friday morning for neighboring Ghana's capital Accra, where they were due to meet new Ivory Coast premier Seydou Diarra. Ghanaian President John Kufuor will also take part in the talks.

Diarra arrived in Ghana before the three-man rebel delegation and held a private meeting with Kufuor, current head of the Economic Community of West African States.

The talks come as time runs out on a rebel ultimatum ordering President Laurent Gbagbo to implement a French-brokered peace accord signed near Paris last month or face more bloodshed in the former French colony.

The rebel deadline is Sunday at midnight. They say that if they do not get the powerful cabinet portfolios of defense and interior in a new government of consensus they will march on Abidjan, the southern economic hub and main port.

Gbagbo, who met Diarra this week, has cast doubt on their demands and insists he will have the last say on nominations.

As he left Bouake, the political leader of the rebel Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI) appeared in no mood to make concessions.

"I am just going to Accra to hear what Seydou Diarra has to say ... There are no more compromises to be made. Everything has been discussed already," Guillaume Soro said.

"The ultimatum still stands and you will see from midnight on Sunday what happens afterwards."

FINGERS CROSSED

The MPCI is the main rebel faction and controls the north of Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer. Two other rebel factions fighting in the west, near the border with Liberia, did not send representatives to Ghana.

"We are crossing our fingers," Diarra said on arrival in Accra.

"Everything that can be done will be done to be sure the accord moves forward," Ghana's Foreign Minister, Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, said.

Ivory Coast's civil war blew up out of a failed coup in September. Officials say thousands have been killed and more than one million forced to flee their homes.

Since his formal appointment this week, Diarra has been locked in talks with participants from all political movements to take the peace process forward. He met Gbagbo on Wednesday.

The creation of a unity government was a key element of the deal and sparked furious anti-French protests when unveiled.

But many Gbagbo supporters find the idea of rebels in charge of police and the army unacceptable. The president has said only that the deal is a good base from which to work.

France has some 3,000 troops in Ivory Coast to protect French and foreign nationals and to police a cease-fire. The elite French soldiers, including Foreign Legion troops, are dug in between the belligerents.

Rebels have repeatedly called on the French to leave, saying the French military presence is the only thing stopping them from sweeping through the country and seizing Abidjan.