ABIDJAN (AFP) - Hundreds of frightened Europeans continued fleeing Ivory Coast as an emergency summit on the violence-torn west African country was set to open in Nigeria.
The African Union summit Sunday is to go ahead without South Africa`s President Thabo Mbeki, said a spokeswoman for AU chairman President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria.
Mbeki has been asked by the pan-continental body to mediate a peaceful solution to the latest outbreak of violence in Ivory Coast, but said Saturday that he would not be available to attend the Abuja summit.
Nigerian spokeswoman Remi Oyo said that the meeting of regional leaders would nevertheless take place as planned at a conference centre attached to the presidential wing of Abuja`s international airport.
In Ivory Coast itself the officer who directed operations that included a raid on a French camp causing nine deaths was appointed to the top military post.
Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo appointed Colonel Philipe Mangou to be the new chief of staff, an official statement said.
A French officer said more than 4,100 foreign nationals had registered with the French army for evacuation from the country, the scene of riots since November 6 after the French military wiped out the Ivorian air force in retaliation for the killing of nine French soldiers in an air strike.
"In total, 4,131 have registered" at the French permanent military base near Abidjan, which has been used as a holding station for those wishing to leave Ivory Coast, Colonel Henry Aussavy said.
"Most of them are French but there are 63 nationalities represented here in total," said Aussavy.
"Abidjan is calm," said Aussavy, but added that the French soldiers would continue their patrols of the commercial capital Abidjan.
The top French officer in Ivory Coast, General Henri Poncet, said there had been a "overall improvement in the situation in Abidjan. In (the capital) Yamoussoukro and San Pedro, the situation is considerably calmer. Things get better and better from hour to hour."
Poncet accused the Ivorian authorities, however, of controlling the media and allowing disinformation to be broadcast.
Nearly 2,500 Westerners have already left since Abidjan airport was reopened on Thursday.
A first group of around 140 foreigners, including some 100 of the 590 Italians living in Ivory Coast, arrived in Rome Saturday after their evacuation.
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said he hoped that Ivorian authorities would firmly commit themselves to peace accords to avoid civil war, warning that France would use all means at its disposal to punish those who carried out attacks, including rape, on French residents in Ivory Coast.
The continuing evacuations came as French officials, seeking to restore political dialogue, declined to blame President Laurent Gbagbo for the upsurge in violence and said they had no proof he gave orders for the aerial attack in which the French soldiers and a US civilian were killed.
"Ivory Coast is and will continue to be a friendly country," said Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.
The action by France in effectively destroying Ivory Coast`s tiny Belarus-supplied air force touched off an angry anti-French backlash and led to the exodus of foreigners as pro-Gbagbo mobs ran riot in Abidjan.
Ivory Coast has been locked in a low-level civil war since rebels launched a failed bid in September 2002 to oust Gbagbo.
In January last year, France brokered a peace pact which was supposed to bring the rebels and political opposition into a unity government.
But that pact, too, sparked anti-French riots by the same hardline Gbagbo supporters responsible for the recent violence, and has still not been fully implemented, leaving Ivory Coast divided into the rebel north and pro-Gbagbo south.
Diplomats hope that France can help international efforts to restore peace, which include Sunday`s meeting in Nigeria.
Paris hopes the summit will devise a regional solution ahead of a vote in the UN Security Council on a French-proposed resolution that would impose an arms embargo and other sanctions on Ivory Coast unless the situation improves within a month.
President Gbagbo on Saturday appointed Colonel Philipe Mangou to be new chief of staff replacing General Mathias Doue, who was to take up "other duties".
Mangou was hitherto commanding officer of the field of operations and directed the air and land offensive against northern-based rebels which climaxed last weekend with the assault on French troops.
Presidential spokesman Desire Tagro said the reshuffle in the military command should not be seen "as a disciplinary or penal sanction."
"It`s simply a matter of promoting new elites in our army," he said.
Gbagbo also appointed Colonel Marc Aka Kadio to head the air force, replacing Colonel Edouard Seka Yapo.
General Denis Bombet, commanding ground forces, became armed forces inspector-general.

11/13/2004 - 22:41 GMT - AFP