run south and a rebel-held north. The country was shaken last month by four days of riots targeting U.N. and French personnel and orchestrated by youth groups loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo. Annan's most recent request was already a step down from an earlier plea for reinforcements, issued in early January. With a long-delayed election due in Ivory Coast by the end of October, Annan had asked for an extra 3,400 soldiers and 475 police officers to improve security during the campaign. That request would have raised troop ceilings in Ivory Coast rather than borrow the soldiers from Liberia. But the United States, which pays about a quarter of the U.N. peacekeeping budget, blocked that request as well.
