Nigeria and Cameroon failed to agree on Friday on terms for a Nigerian handover of the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula, negotiators said. The two African states decided to refer the matter to their respective heads of state and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Nigeria had been due to hand over the heavily populated Bakassi peninsula on Sept. 15 under a 2002 World Court ruling, but called it off at the last minute citing "technical difficulties". "After deliberation on this issue and as a result of a divergence of views, the mixed commission decided to refer the matter to the heads of state of Cameroon and Nigeria and the Secretary-General of the United Nations," the bilateral commission said in a communique after two days of talks. The commission said it would meet again on December 7-8 in the Cameroonian capital. Nigerian lawmakers say Bakassi is home to 300,000 Nigerians who do not want to become Cameroonian nationals, despite the ruling which ordered Nigeria to hand over the territory and its oil-rich offshore zone in the Gulf of Guinea. Nigerian assembly members have called for a U.N.-backed plebiscite to decide the fate of the peninsula. --SP 0030 Local Time 2130 GMT
