IVORY COAST LEADER PROMISES POLL !

By James Copnall BBC News, Abidjan.

The president spoke on the eve of independence day. President Laurent Gbagbo says Ivory Coast can organise twice postponed elections by the end of the year. He was speaking in a televised address on the eve of the country's independence day holiday on Tuesday.

Ivory Coast has been split in half since rebels seized the north nearly five years ago. But a recent peace deal, and the appointment of a former rebel leader as prime minister, has boosted hopes of a peaceful end to the crisis.

Talking to the nation on Monday evening, President Gbagbo made a surprising claim. "We must get out of the political crisis through elections, " he said. "If we all act in good faith... we can organise the presidential election by the end of the year, by December 2007."

Polls have already been postponed twice and the country is still split in two, with rebels controlling the northern half. There are serious issues of redeploying the state administration to the north, a disarmament programme and sorting out the electoral roll to consider. But since a peace deal was signed in March, there has been progress in the peace process. Up until now that progress has been largely symbolic.

But President Gbagbo instructed the rebel chief turned Prime Minister, Guillaume Soro, to do everything to make the elections happen quickly, while stressing his desire for free and fair polls. President Gbagbo's detractors, both nationally and internationally, suspect he will rig the elections to ensure he stays in office.

There is a large UN peacekeeping mission in the country but in effect it has been sidelined. In short, if President Gbagbo and his unlikely ally, Mr Soro, want elections, there is every chance they will get them - in some form.

But how free they are and when exactly they will happen remain open to debate.

BBC NEWS REPORT.