The pro-government Defence and Security forces (FDS) and the armed wing of the former rebels of the New Forces (FN) will both supply 4,000 troops to the Integrated Command Centre (CCI) of the mixed force, the government said in a statement.

The former French colony, the world's top cocoa grower, was sliced in half after a September 2002 coup attempt against president Laurent Gbagbo led by the New Forces of Guillaume Soro, who took control of the northern part of the country.

Peace agreements signed in 2007 and then late 2008 in Ouagadougou, capital of neighbouring Burkina Faso, first saw Soro become head of a power-sharing government and then set a timetable for the presidential election which has since lapsed.

After a general assembly, FN delegates on Tuesday urged Soro to stand down as prime minister so that he could clearly disassociate himself from what they presented as government stalling in implementing the peace accords. However, his spokesman Sindou Meite later said Soro was "at his post," in an implicit rejection of the demand by some of his backers.

According to sources the deployment of the joint force has been the subject of intense negotiations between the parties in recent weeks, while tension mounted over continuing delays in voter registration for the presidential elections due to be held some time this year.

According to the latest peace deal the CCI mixed force is mainly charged with assuring security during the electoral process.

The government said the mixed forces will be deployed in ten municipalities including five in the northern part of the country, a stronghold of the FN former rebels. It is not known how the troops will be divided or when exactly the deployments will be effective.

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