Power-sharing collapses after violent clashes in Ivory Coast

REBELS and the main opposition party withdrew from Ivory Coast's power-sharing government after security forces violently quashed an anti-government protest, killing over 30 protesters demanding implementation of a peace deal, officials said.

Rebels control the northern half of the West African country, once noted for its stability and prosperity as the world's largest cocoa producer.

"We have suspended our participation in government to protest against today's killings," rebel spokesman Alain Lobognon said.

A spokesman for the main opposition party, Rally of the Republicans, Bictogo Adama, said his group would also pull out of the power-sharing government set up after last year's French-brokered peace agreement.

Air France suspended flights to Ivory Coast, and the French Foreign Ministry called on all parties to show restraint.

For decades, Ivory Coast was seen as a haven in a region wracked by coup d'etats and civil wars. That reputation was shattered by a 1999 coup that paved the way for a failed September 2002 coup that saw rebels seize the north.

Army spokesman Lt Col Aka N'goran said five people were killed yesterday, including two policemen, two "criminals" and one man shot by an unknown assailant. French army spokesman Lt Col Bruno Misset confirmed 12 dead.

Djedje Mady, a spokesman for the opposition Democratic Party of Ivory Coast, put the death toll at 16, while his counterpart from the Rally of the Republicans party, Bacongo Cisse, put the death toll as high as 31.

Despite the violence and a government ban on public demonstrations, opposition leaders vowed to press on to reach their destination the downtown business district, known as Plateau, that is home to the presidential palace and key ministries.

The bloodied corpse of one policeman lay in a courtyard in the northern suburb of Abobo, where security forces were trying to break up gathering crowds.

The policeman was among a group who first fired at stone-hurling demonstrators but retreated as protesters chased him, according to local resident, Mady Traore.

"We followed him and he entered a courtyard. We broke down the door and came up behind him, and knocked him down with a brick," Traore said. "When he fell down, one of our friends shot him."

Nearby, other witnesses said demonstrators burned tires in the road and threw rocks at security forces, whereupon paramilitary police shot into the crowd.

Jeannot Koudou, an adviser to the security minister, said "security forces intervened to maintain order," firing tear gas and injuring several people. He denied they had fired into the crowds.

Integration Minister Mel Theodore blamed the opposition for the violence.

The march was called to press President Laurent Gbagbo to implement fully the peace deal to end a nine-month civil war.

Gbagbo's government, which has banned all demonstrations, accuses rebels of plotting a coup d'etat together with opposition parties charges that both groups deny.

The UN is preparing to deploy 6,240 peacekeepers next month to back around 4,000 French and 1,400 West African troops already in the country.