OAU calls summit on Ivorian political situation

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (Reuters) -- The Organization of African Unity (OAU) has called a meeting of Ivory Coast's political leaders and certain heads of state to discuss the situation in the West African country, one of the parties said on Tuesday.

Former Ivorian prime minister and presidential hopeful Alassane Ouattara said he had received an invitation to the meeting, in Togo's capital, Lome, on September 24.

Ivory Coast is undergoing a fraught transition back to civilian rule after a military coup last December.

ALSO Ivory Coast back to work after attack on Guei

Junta head General Robert Guei was the target of an apparent assassination attempt on Monday.

Ouattara said 10 heads of state, including South Africa's Thabo Mbeki and Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo, would attend the meeting, called by Togolese President and current OAU chairman Gnassingbe Eyadema.

"I received a letter from Eyadema yesterday," Ouattara told reporters at his residence. "There will be the country's four main political parties and Guei," he said.

Ouattara said the aim of the meeting would be to find a compromise between Ivory Coast's main political players ahead of a presidential election on October 22, the first in a series of polls to restore civilian rule.

Opposition Rally of the Republicans (RDR) officials denied any link with the attack at Guei's residence but said they feared repercussions.

Ouattara's supporters accuse Guei, himself a candidate in the election, of trying to exclude him from the presidential race on artificial grounds.

His opponents say Ouattara is a national of Burkina Faso and therefore ineligible under tight nationality rules included in a new constitution approved by referendum in July.

Ouattara says he is Ivorian and has submitted all the necessary documents to prove it.

The Supreme Court, headed by one of Guei's former legal advisers, has the final say and must rule by October 7.

Ouattara said an exclusion would trigger political instability.

In a radio interview last week, Ouattara called on all political parties to unite to prevent dictatorship in the country, saying Guei wanted to hang on to power at all costs.

The other countries attending will be Algeria, Ghana, Gabon, Djibouti, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal. These, with Togo, Nigeria and South Africa, form an OAU monitoring group on Ivory Coast.

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