A high-level mediation team attempting to start peace negotiations in the Ivory Coast says it has held preliminary talks with both the rebels and the government.

Mohammed Chambas, the executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), told Reuters news agency that he had a "very cordial conversation" with rebel leaders on Tuesday.

France treats Africans like children

Rebel Paul Gohou

Rebel soldiers - who now call themselves the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast - staged an uprising on 19 September against the government of President Laurent Gbagbo, and hold areas in the north, including the cities of Bouake and Korhogo.

France, which sent more troops to the country on Tuesday, says it is providing "logistical" support to Ivorian Government troops as well as setting up a base for a possible West African peacekeeping force.

Radios, rations

Mr Gbagbo is said to have been very forthcoming in his own meeting with the mediation team, the BBC's Paul Welsh reports from the French base in Yamoussoukro.

Ecowas officials and the foreign secretaries of Nigeria, Ghana and Togo say the president has promised to talk and has provided them with offices and support staff.

The rebels have warned France to stay out of the conflict

But a West African peacekeeping force is being assembled in case their mediation efforts collapse.

French troops are also supplying assistance to the Ivory Coast army in the shape of rations and radio equipment, as part of the tactical support the French Government promised last week.

"Our government has decided to support, in a logistical way, the national forces that belong to the Ivorian Government," said Colonel Christian Baptiste, in the office of the French Army Chief of Staff in Paris.

'Anti-French feeling'

Although they have pledged not to commit soldiers to peacekeeping or combat, a BBC correspondent says this is a significant escalation of the role of the former colonial power in the country.

On Tuesday, the rebels warned France against any involvement in the conflict.

"We warn the French because there might be anti-French feelings," a warrant officer, Paul Gohou, told the BBC's French service from Bouake.

"We ask them to remain neutral," he added.

Mr Gohou said the mutineers had been surprised by France's attitude given, he said, their willingness to co-operate with the French when they evacuated westerners.

There are about 20,000 French nationals in Ivory Coast.

Protests

Mr Gohou said that while he understood that African countries wanted to send troops to Ivory Coast, he did not understand why France intervened.

"France treats Africans like children, including African leaders," he said. "But they are mature enough to settle their conflicts."

Meanwhile, thousands of people demonstrated in rebel-held Korhogo on Tuesday against President Gbagbo and France which, they said, should "leave, or else...", the French news agency AFP reported.

France has had a permanent military presence in Ivory Coast since independence.

Meanwhile, both the government and the rebels reported heavy fighting at Tiebissou, 40km north of Yamoussoukro, which is the country's administrative capital.