20110218
Xinhua
JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- South Africa has no favorite in Cote d'Ivoire presidential election crisis, the country's International Relations Minister Maite Nkoane-Mashabane said on Thursday.

Addressing journalists in Cape Town, she said South Africa believes that dwelling on the "inconclusive" elections will not help in negotiating an end to the political.

Both incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo and opposition leader Alassane Ouattara claim to have won the run-off election held on Nov. 28.

Nkoane-Mashabane said it is not South Africa's business to drag the two contenders backward but to help them forward.

Earlier, South Africa endorsed Ouattara as the winner and called on Gbagbo to relinquish power.

On Thursday, Nkoane-Mashabane said South African President Jacob Zuma will in the coming days lead a five-man African Union (AU) delegation to Cote d'Ivoire for talks.

Prior to that, he will hold consultations in Mauritania, where President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz heads the panel of leaders designated by the AU to deal with the crisis.

The minister explained that South Africa's current neutrality arose because supporters of both Ouattara and Gbagbo had asked South Africa to negotiate an end to the stalemate.

She said both parties had said they don't want to discuss elections again.

"They want to move forward because they realize that there were some discrepancies with the elections", she said.

South Africa's earlier decision to endorse Ouattara's victory came after the AU, the United Nations and the European Union recognized that he had won the vote.

Nkoane-Mashabane said the AU had the "prerogative" to review its decisions, although the initial information gave it cause to endorse Outtara's victory.

In the last 10 days, she has held intensive consultations with supporters of both Gbagbo and Ouattara, she said.

Both parties have agreed that they will accept whatever solution Zuma and the rest of the AU team find to end the deadlock.