The UN Security Council held talks on Monday on a French resolution to impose an arms embargo on Ivory Coast, where nine French peacekeepers were killed in government air raids at the weekend.
French diplomats said they were hoping for a vote as soon as possible, but added that initial reports of a vote as early as Monday evening seemed less likely as the talks continued at UN headquarters in New York. The resolution would put an arms embargo on the former French colony, the world's top producer of cocoa, which has been in renewed crisis since the government bombarded rebel positions in the north on Thursday.
More air strikes on Friday killed nine French soldiers and an American, prompting a retaliation attack by the French military that virtually wiped out the small west African nation's air force.
French troops and UN peacekeepers are both on the ground in Cote d'Ivoire, the French name by the which the country is also known, to maintain a buffer between the government-held south and the rebel-controlled north.
The country was effectively split in two after a September 2002 coup attempt led by the rebel New Forces tried to oust President Laurent Gbagbo. They called for his departure again on Monday as tensions mounted.
"The immediate emergency is to make sure that this violation of the cease-fire does not lead to a breakdown of the peace process," said the head of UN peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guehenno.
"The first order of the day is really to limit the level of tension and violence on the ground," he told AFP in an interview.
The draft UN resolution, put forward on Sunday after an emergency meeting of the Security Council the previous day, would slap an immediate weapons embargo on the country.
It calls for nations to "take the necessary measures to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer ... of arms or any related materiel, in particular military aircraft." It also calls for nations to freeze the assets and bar entry "of all such individuals ... who constitute a threat to the peace and national reconciliation process" and would impose travel and financial sanctions on those accused of violating human rights.
Nations, in particular African countries, would have to report to the council within 60 days and outline the actions they have taken to implement the sanctions. President Gbago ordered the air strikes on the rebel strongholds of Bouake and Korhogo last week in what he called an operation to "liberate and reunite the country."
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