The U.N. Security Council met in emergency session on Saturday to condemn the killing of nine French peacekeepers and an American relief worker in the Ivory Coast. Ambassadors and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in the late afternoon for closed-door consultations in the 15-nation council, chaired by the United States. France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc Sabliere, who called the meeting, told reporters that a ninth French soldier had died of his wounds in a bombing raid by the Ivorian military on the rebel-held stronghold of Bouake. An American relief worker also died in the raid, which was met by a French counter-attack, U.S. and French envoys said. After consultations, the Security Council is expected to read a policy statement at a formal meeting that would demand an immediate cessation of all military action and condemn the attacks, the envoys said. "I called this meeting after the very serious breach of the cease-fire and the attacks carried this morning," de la Sabliere said. Some 10,000 French and U.N. soldiers police the buffer zone around a cease-fire line that separates the rebels from the government-run south. --More 0056 Local Time 2156 GMT
