Fresh attempts are being made to revive talks on restoring peace in Ivory Coast.

Two weeks of negotiations between the government and rebels in the Togolese capital, Lome, had been making progress, but were suspended on Saturday after the brother of a rebel leader was killed.

The rebels say they will only return if Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo guarantees the security of everyone in Ivory Coast, including opponents of the government.

Togo's President Gnassingbe Eyadema, who has been mediating in the crisis, has been meeting representatives of the rebels to discuss ways of restarting the talks.

Discussions have focused on a peace plan drawn up by the regional economic organisation, Ecowas.

Rebel negotiator Guillaume Soro said that the rebels had not pulled out of talks altogether.

"As soon as the conditions are right, we are ready to restart negotiations at any moment," he said.

Disappearances

Ivory Coast walked out of talks after the death on Friday of the brother of a rebel supporter.

Benoit Dacoury-Tabley, a doctor, was taken by uniformed men and shot dead in a suburb of the capital, Abidjan.

The killing came two days after his brother, the former deputy of President Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front party, joined the rebels' political wing, the Patriotic Movement for Ivory Coast.

The brother's was the first defection of its kind here by a former deputy to President Gbagbo in opposition.

The BBC correspondent in Ivory Coast says that, even while attending the talks in Lome, both sides have been preparing for a possible outbreak of fighting.