New Ivory Coast Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny expressed confidence on Sunday he could help guide the troubled West African state to new elections next October, Reuters reported Banny told reporters after meeting South African President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria that he was optimistic about setting up the new polls and disarming Ivory Coast rebels. "If I did not think I could help ... then I would not have accepted this mission. So my acceptance of this mission is the answer to your question," he said. Banny, formerly governor of West Africa's central bank, was named Ivory Coast's new interim prime minister earlier this month by Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who had been mediating the crisis in the world's top cocoa grower on behalf of the African Union. Banny is due to have an expanded mandate under a U.N.-backed deal giving him powers to carry out disarmament and electoral reforms with the aim of organising presidential polls by the end of October next year. Banny declined to answer questions on the proposed composition of his new cabinet, but said he believed the Ivory Coast should have a government "where people can identify with the social and political components (of the leadership)". Ivory Coast has been torn into a rebel-held north and government-run south since a 2002 civil war which sprang out of a failed attempt by the rebels to topple President Laurent Gbagbo. --SP 2137 Local Time 1837 GMT
