called dual-use vehicles with both military and civilian uses. The panel also thanked Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania, South Africa and Israel for helping crack down on illicit arms deals but said neighboring Guinea had refused to provide it with the information it needed to detect banned arms sales. Exporters in Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, estimate that around 150,000 tons of cocoa a year are being smuggled from Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, to Ghana, where prices were higher, and the amount is growing by at least 15 percent a year, the panel reported. Cocoa is also smuggled to Burkina Faso and Togo, it said. Cotton is being sneaked into Mali and Burkina Faso, despite a February 2005 promise by FN leader Guillaume Soro to prevent its diversion to other countries, the panel reported. Millions of dollars of rough diamonds are being mined and exported from riverbeds in northern Ivory Coast, in violation of a government ban on the trade, the panel said. "The group believes that revenue from this illegal diamond production provides an important income for the FN," it said. The rebels also earn significant sums of money by "taxing" vehicles as they pass through the dozens of roadblocks they maintain, known in the area as "cash points," it said.
