Government forces reclaim city in Ivory Coast cocoa belt

BOUAFLE, Ivory Coast -- After hours of gunfire and heavy explosions, government forces reclaimed a major city in the Ivory Coast cocoa belt--even as West African mediators pushed authorities and rebels to agree on a truce.\nResidents reached by telephone Tuesday said loyalist forces were circulating in Daloa, a city of 160,000 people whose capture Sunday was an important victory for rebels who have seized half the country.\nRebels appeared to have vacated the city, leaving vehicles--and bodies--scattered behind them.\n"I saw four bodies in the street," said one resident.\nIn the commercial center, Abidjan, mediators waited for word from the insurgents on whether they were ready to sign a truce to end their nearly monthlong rebellion.\nThe rebels "are sending us very positive signals," Senegalese Foreign Minister Tidiane Gadio said after several telephone conversations Monday with the insurgents. He said he hoped to meet with them in the central, rebel-held city of Bouake on Tuesday.\n"I do not consider that the negotiations are over," he said.\nEarlier, Gadio had said the insurgents agreed "in principle" to the peace plan--but that they also warned mediators they would respond to any attack with a counterattack.\nThe insurgents told mediators they had captured Daloa in response to a government offensive north of the city. The victory was symbolically important because the city is in the heartland of Gbagbo's Bete tribe.\nGbagbo in turn instructed his forces to push on as far as Vavoua, about 35 miles north of Daloa.\n"This is an infernal kind of logic that just leads to an impasse," Gadio said.\nHe said he had appealed to the rebels to withdraw from Daloa as a sign of good faith. Sporadic firing continued overnight, but by Tuesday morning the city was calm.\nGbagbo said his government accepted the mediator's proposals, under which rebels would confine themselves to barracks, with their weapons, so peace talks could begin. Only practical details remained to be worked out, he said in an interview Monday on state radio and television.\n"This week we will finish this, either by signing or by making war. But we can't wait any longer than the end of this week," Gbagbo said.\nThe rebels are centered around 750-800 former soldiers, many of them dismissed from the army for suspected disloyalty. Their uprising has gathered support from Ivorians in the north, who complain that Ivory Coast's southern-based government treats them poorly.\nHundreds have died in the fighting. The war--and ethnic violence it is unleashing--has caused tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, creating a tide of refugees that aid workers fear could spill over Ivorian borders, destabilizing other West African countries.\nInternational markets are worried about the effect the uprising will have on cocoa supplies, used to make chocolate. Daloa residents said the fighting was preventing farmers from harvesting cocoa plantations and that cocoa businesses were closed.\nIvory Coast produces more than 1 million tons of cocoa annually, or about 40 percent of the world's supply.