20110423
reuters

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara on Friday ordered soldiers from all sides of the country's conflict to return to their barracks in an effort to restore stability.

Ouattara won a post-election power struggle when his rival, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, who had refused to cede power, was arrested last week. The main city of Abidjan remained awash with fighters and violence simmered.

Experts from the West African central bank (BCEAO) visited Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa producer, to see how quickly the banking system can be revived and France said it would send a plane load of medical aid.

"As commander-in-chief of the army, I order you to pull all combat units to their barracks and bases of origin, whether that is in the north or the south," Ouattara told senior generals from all sides in a meeting on Friday.

"Combat units must return to their barracks and law and order will be maintained by the police and gendarmes."

After months of unsuccessful diplomacy, pro-Ouattara forces, dominated by rebels who have controlled the north since a civil war in 2002-2003, swept into Abidjan at the end of March but were bogged down for days in fighting with pro-Gbagbo loyalists.

A breakthrough was made after French and U.N. helicopter gunships destroyed Gbagbo's heavy weapons, allowing Ouattara's forces to enter Gbagbo's compound and arrest him.

However, Ouattara was struggling to hold together his fractured alliance, as well as to neutralise lingering pro-Gbagbo militia holding out on the Abidjan neighbourhood of Yopougon, where there was heavy fighting this week.