Ivory Coast security forces barred rebel chiefs from a meeting with President Laurent Gbagbo on Tuesday, a day before U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was due for a summit to bolster peace efforts in the divided state. The dispute appeared to hinge on whether the rebels or their U.N. bodyguards could take guns to the meeting, and was inflamed by the high-ranking military insignia worn by officers from the rebel New Forces, who hold northern Ivory Coast.The latest standoff came a day before Kofi Annan was due for a special summit with Gbagbo, regional leaders and officials from the belligerent sides to boost a peace process aimed at reuniting the country in time for elections due in October. Gbagbo had asked to meet senior rebel officials on Tuesday to discuss how to remove obstacles to a 3-year-old peace process which has so far failed to reunite the rebel-held north and the government-held south after a brief 2002-03 civil war. "It had been agreed with the defence minister that the New Forces would arrive here without their stripes and guns. Unfortunately, they came with their stripes and their guns," said Anderson Appia, Gbagbo's communications adviser.
During talks between the two sides last week the army refused to recognise ranks awarded by the rebel forces. But the rebels said it was not they but their bodyguards -- members of the U.N. peacekeeping mission -- who were armed and refused to give up their guns. "We arrived by car with a delegation of 12 people including two generals. The army insisted that the blue helmets who ensure our security gave up their guns," said rebel military spokesman Seydou Ouattara. "The blue helmets refused and we retraced their steps with us because if something happened to us, they wouldn't be able to do anything to defend us," he said.