By Tom McKinley BBC, Ivory Coast

The main rebel group in Ivory Coast, the Popular Movement for Ivory Coast (MPCI), has said that its supporters are planning to hold a large demonstration in government-held Abidjan.

With ongoing peace talks in Paris there is currently a truce between all the warring parties.

But this latest announcement is being seen by the government as unnecessary provocation.

A senior commander of the MPCI has legitimised the march by saying that civilians have a democratic right to demonstrate wherever they like, including in the commercial capital, Abidjan.

'Act of war'

According to Kone Musa, 10 busloads of supporters will drive to Abidjan from rebel-held territory on Wednesday.

There are signs of hope for the Paris talks

Here they will apparently join thousands of other MPCI sympathisers in demonstrating against the government.

But in reacting to the announcement, Ivory Coast Defence Minister Bertini Cadet said the government would see this as an act of war.

He said that the demonstrators were rebels and that he would use every weapon at his disposal to shoot them.

French troops monitoring the ceasefire in Ivory Coast had said that if the demonstrators are civilian they can do nothing to intervene.

Provocation

But the Mapco�s threat to demonstrate in Abidjan is a blatant provocation to the government.

And even if the government allows the demonstrations to go ahead there will be a violent reaction from loyalist supporters.

On Saturday, tens of thousands gathered in Abidjan to lambast rebel demands for early elections.

They are unlikely to take kindly to rebel sympathisers on their territory.