South Africa's president said he opposed a threatened African Union-backed assault by the Comoros archipelago's troops against the rebel island of Anjouan, saying it should be given time for a poll, according to Reuters. Hundreds of federal troops have amassed on nearby Moheli island vowing an imminent assault on hilly, wooded Anjouan after its French-trained former gendarme leader, Mohamed Bacar, defied the national government with an illegal election last year. "They are quite ready to have those elections as early as May," Mbeki said late on Wednesday, adding that Bacar had informed him in a letter to the South African foreign ministry that he was prepared to hold a new, legitimate vote. "I think (that) is really the way that we should go. I don't think there is any need to do anything apart or additional to that," he said at the end of a two-day visit to Mauritius. The Indian Ocean archipelago's national government has repeatedly said a military solution is the only option left.
