The Recamp IV training exercise brought soldiers from the Economic Community of West African States together with troops from France, Europe and North America to share expertise in coping with wars and humanitarian disasters.

But as invited dignitaries including President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin and France's Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie attended a closing ceremony in the southern Beninois town of Abomey, many thoughts were on the peacekeepers striving to stave off disaster in nearby Ivory Coast.

"I hope that the page will turn and that the Ivorian parties -- the government and the rebels -- will understand that that there is no military solution to the crisis in Ivory Coast, only a political solution," Alliot-Marie told reporters ahead of the parade.

The Recamp programme is a practical expression of the close military ties which France has maintained with many of its former African colonies, such as Ivory Coast, which was one seen as the most stable and successful country in post-independence west Africa.

The links being celebrated in Benin this week broke down dramatically in Ivory Coast last month, after government forces bombed French peacekeepers policing the frontline between loyalist and rebel forces and France responded by destroying its former ally's airforce.

In the subsequent outpouring of Ivorian anger French expatriates were targeted by pro-government mobs and peacekeepers clashed with rioters and loyalist forces in the streets and airport of Abidjan.

A measure of calm has now returned, and France is putting its faith in a renewed round of international mediation to persuade President Laurent Gbagbo's government to rejoin a faltering peace process.

Alliot-Marie underlined that "a military solution would fall heaviest on the civilian population and risk plunging the whole sub-region into generalised instability."

More than 1,600 soldiers from the 15 ECOWAS states took part in the Recamp exercise, alongside troops from France, the United States, Canada, Argentina and several European countries. Ivory Coast sent some staff officers, but no frontline troops took part in the training.

France has some 5,000 soldiers serving in Ivory Coast alongside a similar United Nations peacekeeping mission, which includes many west African troops from the countries represented at Recamp.

West Africans are also serving in UN and African Union missions in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan.