Congo president holds first peace meeting

Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso launched his role as a top African peace mediator on Sunday, meeting with the prime minister of civil war-divided Ivory Coast days after taking over as African Union head.

The 53-member continentwide body named Sassou-Nguesso as its leader Monday after Sudan's bid to head the bloc failed amid concerns over allegations it sponsored genocide in its western Darfur region.

The AU head often takes the lead on efforts to broker peace in African and Sassou-Nguesso held his first mediation meeting Sunday, talking with Ivory Coast Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny. Banny heads a transitional government meant to arrange long-delayed elections in the country still split after a 2002-2003 civil war.

Banny told reporters that in their two-hour meeting, Sassou-Nguesso said he was committed to working for long-term peace in Ivory Coast, where rebels, government forces and their allies remain armed but separated by a buffer zone monitored by French and U.N. peacekeepers.

''Sassou-Nguesso convinced me of his determination to take the lead in the Ivorian dossier,'' said Banny, named to his post in December and charged with leading the national-unity government and arranging elections by 2006.

''He indicated that he gives his support not only to the prime minister, but also to Ivory Coast in its diversity, in its political components and also in its contradictions.''

Sassou-Nguesso didn't meet with reporters.

He first came to power in a 1979 revolt, heading a one-party state for 13 years. Despite his Marxist credentials, Sassou-Nguesso cultivated the West and opened up the country to market forces.

With democracy sweeping the continent in the post-Cold War era, he organized elections in 1992, but lost the vote.

Civil war erupted in 1997 and Sassou-Nguesso, who led one of the militia factions, seized power again. A year later, he faced a new rebellion that finally ended with a cease-fire in 1999.

The two back-to-back wars left the impoverished country in ruins, and Sassou-Nguesso's dominance helped him to easily win the last elections in 2002.

Sassou-Nguesso is no stranger to his new job. In 1986, he chaired the African Union's predecessor, the Organization of African Unity, for one year, creating a financial institution that gathered funds from across the continent to fight apartheid in South Africa.

The OAU was disbanded in 2002 after 39 years because it was widely considered an ineffective talking shop. For the last three years, Sassou-Nguesso has also headed the Central African Economic Community, or CEMAC.