ABIDJAN (AFP) - Ivory Coast said 63 people were killed in a week of clashes with French troops as it handed over military powers to a hawkish former head of its northern command, whose appointment is considered a provocation by both the rebels and France.
Major Colonel Philippe Mangou sought to offer reassurances that he wanted to restore stability to the former French colony as he was installed, after the violence caused an exodus of foreigners.
"Let us mobilize as one man to move beyond the problems observed or experienced in the unfortunate events of these last several days," Mangou, 52, told a crowd including his predecessor General Mathias Doue and Defense Minister Rene Amani gathered at the Camp Gallieni military base in Abidjan.
But the appointment of Mangou, deemed responsible for three days of air strikes on the rebel-held north this month that ruptured an 18-month-old ceasefire, is considered suspect by both France and the rebels who have held the north of the former star French colony since a civil war erupted in September 2002.
It has also been interpreted as a hardening of the regime of President Laurent Gbagbo and has created tensions within the armed forces due to Mangou`s relative inexperience, a military source told AFP.
A government statement released after the cabinet meeting Thursday, the first since the air raids, said 63 people were killed and some 1,300 injured in anti-French mob riots that flared after France wiped out the country`s modest air force.
No independent confirmation of the casualty toll was available.
France was retaliating for a November 6 air strike that hit its military barracks in the central town of Bouake, a rebel stronghold, leaving nine French troops and a US aid worker dead.
Rebel leader Guillaume Soro has said at least 85 civilians were killed in the three days of strikes launched, according to Gbagbo, in a bid to "liberate and reunify" the divided country.
Once a beacon of stability for troubled west Africa, Ivory Coast has been mired in turmoil for two years, with the latest phase of unrest stoking regional fears that violence could bleed over its borders and destabilize the hard-won peace in neighbors such as Liberia, itself emerging from 14 years of war.
The African Union has dispatched South African President Thabo Mbeki to mediate the crisis, and has lined up behind an arms embargo imposed on Monday by the UN Security Council that could be followed by a targeted travel ban and the freezing of assets on December 15 should there be no progress towards peace.
Soro was on his own diplomatic offensive Friday, having again been sacked by Gbagbo from his post as communications minister in the unity government for boycotting Thursday`s cabinet meeting.
Soro met Thursday with UN special envoy to Ivory Coast Albert Teovedjre before traveling to Lome for talks with Togo President Gnassingbe Eyadema.
He met Friday in Ghana to meet with President John Kufuor, current head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), before traveling on to Johannesburg for talks with Mbeki.
Government spokesman Hubert Oulaye said Gbagbo decided to suspend Soro and the other eight ministers representing the rebel New Forces -- as well as five ministers from the main opposition Rally for Republicans -- so as not to "handicap" government function.
The ministers opted out of Thursday`s meeting for "security reasons," despite an offer of armed escorts from the UN operation in Ivory Coast.
Some 8,300 people, representing more than half of the French passport holders in Ivory Coast have been evacuated since the violence erupted in Abidjan, the French foreign ministry said Friday.
Roughly 1,000 other foreign nationals also fled the rampage of assault, looting and, in some cases, rape that destroyed parts of what was once one of Africa`s most sophisticated and modern cities.
Another 13,000 Ivorians have flooded into northeastern Liberia to avoid being caught in the crossfire should there be a return to fighting between government and rebel troops.

11/19/2004 - 17:57 GMT - AFP