The main Ivory Coast rebel group taking part in peace talks in Paris says a lot of progress has been made over the last week.

A spokesman for the Popular Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI), Sidiki Konate, said that as a sign of good will, they had decided to postpone a march planned in government-held Abidjan on Wednesday.

Paris decided to mediate after the failure of talks in Lome, Togo

African leaders and other international figures, including United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, are due to meet in the French capital on Saturday to try to solve the Ivorian crisis.

French President Jacques Chirac will meet his Ivorian counterpart before the weekend talks.

The Ivorian rebels want President Laurent Gbagbo to step down and are demanding fresh elections, blaming him for a surge of ethnic tensions and bloodshed.

Hundreds have been killed and more than a million displaced since the rebellion started in September.

Meanwhile, Liberian forces say they have retaken a small town captured by rebels operating from across the border in Ivory Coast.

'No taboos'

Mr Konate said that issues such as nationality and the constitution had been debated and that progress was being made.

He said that justice and the issue of human rights were next on the agenda, and that they would then move on to proposals to solve the crisis, including the controversial issue of early elections

"I can assure you that over a few days, all the essential issues have been examined without any taboos, contrary to the time that was wasted in Lome," Mr Sidiki told the BBC's French service.

His comments coincided with the end of a summit of six West African heads of state in Lome, Togo, which failed to come up with a united position on the Ivorian crisis.

The presidents only called for an extraordinary regional summit to resolve the issue.

Mr Konate added that a march the MPCI was planning to organise in Abidjan on Wednesday had been postponed to give peace a chance.

"The mediation chairman drew our attention to the fact that the march could be used by those against peace in Ivory Coast as an excuse to cause trouble," he said.

IVORY COAST CONFLICT

Hundreds killed More than a million displaced Rebels want Gbagbo to step down They also want fresh elections Gbagbo wants rebels to disband

Who are the rebels?

On Monday, President Chirac said the ex-colonial power could mediate in peace efforts, but that it was up to Ivorians themselves to end the war.

"Ivory Coast is in a crisis of the kind to make the great sage [founding President Felix] Houphouet-Boigny turn in his grave," Mr Chirac told Le Figaro newspaper.

"In the current situation, we must trust in traditional African wisdom. That is what we are doing at Marcoussis by bringing all the Ivorian groups together."

The groups are expected to be joined at the weekend by African heads of state, including the president of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, whose regime Mr Gbagbo has accused of supporting the rebels.

President Compaore was quoted as saying to a French newspaper, Le Parisien, that the only solution to the crisis in Ivory Coast is for President Gbagbo to go.

Mr Compaore also told the newspaper that Mr Gbagbo risked ending up "like Milosevic", before a war crimes tribunal, to explain violence by his supporters, mass graves and death squads.

Liberia

Meanwhile, Liberia says its forces have now retaken the small town of Beam, which it said had been captured on Sunday by Liberian rebels operating from across the border in Ivory Coast.

At least one Liberian is reported to have died in the attack.

Liberian Information Minister Reginald Goodridge said his country was demanding an explanation from the Ivorian Government, which has denied any knowledge of the raid.

Last week, Liberian President, Charles Taylor acknowledged that Liberians were fighting on both sides in the Ivory Coast.