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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~