A summit of French-speaking countries on Friday pledged to work towards peace in war-divided Ivory Coast and called for further initiatives to end violence in the Middle East and other parts of Africa, according to Reuters. In a resolution adopted after the two-day gathering in the Romanian capital Bucharest, the Francophonie organisation urged Ivory Coast, a former French colony in West Africa, to hold free elections. The summit was attended by, among others, French President Jacques Chirac. "We direct the secretary general (of the Francophonie) to continue to get strongly involved in the search for a sustainable solution," said the gathering of dozens of leaders of countries with large French-speaking populations. The biennial francophone gathering, which brought together 1,500 delegates from more than 60 countries, reelected former Senegal President Abdou Diouf as secretary general of the organisation for his second four-year term. Chirac said during the summit that Ivory Coast, the world's number one cocoa grower, has reached a "disastrous" state. It has been split into government-controlled south and rebel-held north since a brief 2002-2003 civil war. Repeated reunification efforts have foundered amid political bickering and presidential polls, already postponed by a year, look certain to miss an Oct. 31 deadline. The summit offered its "full support" to the Lebanese government in rehabilitating southern Lebanon but gave no details. Aside from crises in the Middle East and Africa, the Francophone gathering also discussed the importance of French language and culture, particularly in Europe where diplomats say France is frustrated by diminishing use of French in EU works. Romanians, whose own language has Latin roots, have a traditional affinity for the French. Before World War Two Bucharest's tree-lined avenues and villas earned it the nickname of "Little Paris". The country joined the Francophonie in 1993.
