The new president of Cote d'Ivoire's national electoral commission took office on Tuesday, thus removing an obstacle on the way to the upcoming presidential elections in the war-divided country.

The new president, Mambe Beugre, said at the inauguration ceremony that his commission would seek consensus and resolve political differences among rival parties to ensure the coming presidential polls to be held in a "fair, transparent and open" atmosphere.

Under an agreement inked by President Laurent Gbagbo, the independent electoral commission and signatory parties to the country's peace deal, Beugre would be the sole eligible person to announce who the new president will be.

Beugre was elected president of the electoral commission last October. But Gbagbo's supporters, who argued with opposition members over the qualification of voters for the presidential polls, refused to accept Beugre as the commission president and decided to quit the electoral body.

UN representative Antonio Monteiro declared in February that the election for the leadership of the electoral commission was valid. Following that, leaders of rival factions reached compromise on the disputes over the electoral body.

Also on Tuesday, the President of the African Development Bank (ADB), called on all parties in Cote d'Ivoire to end the political crisis and allow the bank to return to its original base in the country's economic capital Abidjan.

The ADB's president, Donald Kaberuka, made it very clear that the bank would move its headquarters from Tunisia to Abidjan as soon as peace was restored and security conditions were convincingly improved in Cote d'Ivoire, at a press conference ending a two-day visit to the country.

Progress had been made in the peace process in the country, but conditions were not right yet for the bank to make its way back, he noted.

Kaberuka expressed a willingness to resume loans to the West African country. However, he said Cote d'Ivoire must pay off the loans it had owed the ADB since the outbreak of its domestic crisis.

Kaberuka arrived in Abidjan on Sunday in his first visit to the country since he took office in September last year. He has met President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny and held talks with government officials and business people.

The ADB was established in 1964 under the auspices of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and began operating in 1966.

Cote d'Ivoire, the world's leading cocoa producer, has been split since fighting broke out in 2002 between Gbagbo's government and rebels who control the north of the country.

Peace efforts have been characterized by repeated delays, political squabbling and on-off violence. The presidential polls due last October also failed to take place as the rebels had pulled out.

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2006)