ACCRA, Sept 29 (AFP) - West African leaders decided Sunday to send
peacekeepers into Ivory Coast as a buffer force between the army and
rebels, and asked a group of presidents to undertake mediation.
   The following are the main points from the final communique:
   - The heads of state warned that the crisis could result in a
humanitarian
catastrophe;
   - they urged the rebels to abstain from attacking civilians in the towns
they occupy and to enter into dialogue with the west African presidential
group, lay down their arms, and resolve their differences with the
government peacefully;
   - they noted the reassuring declarations of Ivory Coast President
Laurent Gbagbo, who said the attackers were mercenaries, and asked him and
Blaise Compaore, the president of neighbouring Burkina Faso, accused in
Ivory Coast of masterminding the uprising, to urge their populations to
treat the others among them as good neighbours;
   The summit was attended by President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso;
President Pedro Pires of Cape Verde;
President John Kufuor of Ghana; President Kumba Yala of Guinea-Bissau;
President Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast; President Charles Taylor of
Liberia; President Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali; President Mamadou Tandja
of Niger; President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria; President Abdoulaye Wade
of Senegal; President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo;
Vice President Isatou Njie-Saidy of Gambia; Minister of State Bruno
Amoussou of Benin; Presidency Minister in charge of foreign affairs of
Guinea, Francois Fall; Deputy Foreign Minister Lamin Kamara of Sierra
Leone.
   South African President Thabo Mbeki also attended as chairman of the
African Union.

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