The disarming of warring factions in Ivory Coast, a crucial step in a delicate peace process, was delayed Thursday by a last-minute dispute, rebels said.
An 11th-hour meeting on Wednesday between loyalist and rebel military leaders failed to agree on practical details of an operation to regroup fighters, and talks were not due to resume until May 31.
"We do not plan any troop movements this morning," rebel spokesman Sidiki Konate told AFP. Regrouping of forces for disarmament would not start until the rival military leaders reached a deal, he said.
The press service of the national disarmament programme said it had no information about any regrouping plans for Thursday.
Disarming fighters loyal to the government, which controls the south, and the rebels, who control the north, is one of two essential steps towards reuniting the nation of 16 million.
Combattants from both sides had been expected to start grouping at 110 assembly sites.
The repeatedly delayed operation was supposed to lead to the disarmament and demobilisation of 42,500 New Forces rebels, 5,000 regular army troops and 12,000 members of hard-line militias loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo.
The other step in the peace process - issuing identity documents to people so they can vote in UN-supervised general and presidential elections that must be held by October 31 - was also scheduled to start Thursday.
Over seven days of public hearings at seven test sites - in the north, the south and the demilitarised zone between the two - people aged 13 years or over can obtain Ivorian birth certificates if their nationality can be confirmed by community leaders or village elders.
At the end of the trial exercise, a full-scale identification process is to be launched at 150 public hearings across the country. The goal is to provide ID documents to all people who can prove they were born in Ivory Coast and are therefore qualified to vote.
Ivory Coast, once west Africa's economic powerhouse, descended into civil war in 2002 after a failed rebel coup against Gbagbo. Fighting died down in 2003 and a transitional government has been installed. But the country is still deeply divided and extremely volatile.
The leader of the Young Patriots, militant supporters of president, warned late Wednesday against any attempt to sabotage the voter identification process but also said that the operation could not take place "without disarmament happening".
The United Nations hopes multi-party elections will help restore peace and stability but believes they can only be successful if preceeded by disarmament, reunification and a population census that can lead to the compilation of credible voter lists.
One of the root causes of the civil war was the sidelining from elections of many of Gbagbo's political opponents on the grounds that they were not Ivorian. At least a quarter of the population is foreign according to the last population census, conducted in 1998.
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