Congolese Ambassador Basile Ikouebe, the president of the 15-member body for May, read out a French-drafted non-binding statement that threatens "targeted measures", meaning sanctions, against those blocking the peace process or inciting publicly hatred or violence.

The statement endorses a communique issued last week by a UN-backed panel of African and Western power brokers in the Ivorian crisis.

The International Working Group, which met in Abidjan Friday, issued a stern warning against attempts to block the peace process and called for UN sanctions against those who try to do so.

The group was set up by a UN resolution last year to steer the cocoa-rich former French colony to new polls within a year after elections due last October failed to take place.

Last February, a UN Security Council panel slapped a 12-month travel ban and asset freeze on three Ivory Coast politicians viewed as obstacles to peace.

Sanctions are called for under a 2004 Security Council resolution designed to punish individuals deemed responsible for obstructing the peace process, incitement to hatred or violations of human rights and the arms embargo imposed on Ivory Coast.

Wednesday's statement welcomed talks under way between leaders of government and rebel forces to initiate a disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) program.

It reiterated the council's full support for Ivorian Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny and commended him for having taken, in cooperation with President Laurent Gbagbo, "these concrete initiatives which constitute a first step towards the implementation of the peace process he leads".

It also urged Banny's government to take immediate steps, with the support of the French-backed UN mission in Ivory Coast "to accelerate the implementation of the roadmap ... the redeployment of the administration throughout the territory and the reunification of the country".

Ivorian authorities are also directed "to take without delay all the necessary steps so that those responsible for violence are identified and punished".

Ivory Coast, once west Africa's economic powerhouse and hub of political stability, has been divided since a failed coup attempt against Gbagbo in September 2002 by rebel forces, who have controlled the north ever since.

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