ABUJA, Oct 11 (AFP) - Nigeria said Friday that the Ivory Coast government has no choice but to back a west African peace plan and angrily accused President Laurent Gbagbo's regime of "playing games" with mediators. Junior foreign minister Dubem Onyia, who was Nigeria's representative on a west African mission to broker a ceasefire between Gbagbo's forces and rebels, said the Ivorian leader must enter new negotiations. "He has no option," Onyia told reporters, "The only other option is to go to war, which would do nobody any good." For more than three weeks rebel soldiers have been battling Ivorian loyalist forces, splitting the country in two and leading it to the brink of what the UN food aid agency said Friday would be a "wide-scale humanitarian crisis". Ivory Coast's regional neighbours, under the aegis of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), tried last week to mediate a ceasefire and the start of talks between the warring parties. At the weekend Gbagbo snubbed calls for him to sign a ceasefire accord. On Friday, Onyia accused him of cynically exploiting the peace mission to prepare an assault on the rebel held central Ivorian city of Bouake. "Before we went there the government had made no contact with the rebels. They didn't even know who they are or where they are," he said. "Because we were able to feel their pulse and were able to identify them and made contact with them the government used it to plan an attack on them. All the time the government was playing games with us," he complained. "They were planning to see if they could crush them." As Onyia and his colleagues were leaving Ivory Coast at the weekend after their stalled peace bid, government forces did launch an assault on Bouake. They were repulsed by rebel forces after heavy fighting in the city. The west African allies have vowed not to give up on their peace plan, and negotiators are again planning to meet both parties, but the humanitarian situation is worsening and the rebels have promised an offensive of their own. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~