South African President Thabo Mbeki on Saturday told journalists he would not attend an African Union Summit in Nigeria on Sunday to discuss the crisis in Ivory Coast. Mbeki, who has been mandated by the A.U. to seek peace in the Ivory Coast, is to travel to Europe instead for a state visit to Brussels and the Netherlands and talks with European Union officials. Mbeki was speaking to the media in Pretoria before talks with his counterpart from Burkina Faso, Blaise Campaore on Saturday evening. "We shall be discussing the issue of the Ivory Coast. But as yet there is nothing to report because we haven't started talks yet," Mbeki said. Their meeting is part of an A.U. bid to end the crisis in Ivory Coast where violence flared amid growing anti-French and foreigner sentiment last weekend. Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo has accused Campaore's government of backing rebels holding the north of his country. Opposition leaders from Ivory Coast, among them exiled former Ivorian prime minister Alassane Outtara and opposition party leader Alphonse Djedje Mady, arrived in Pretoria for talks with Mbeki on Thursday. --More 2338 Local Time 2038 GMT
