They said Albert Tevoedjre, the head of an international committee following up a French-brokered peace deal for Ivory Coast, obtained Kufuor's go-ahead in Accra on Tuesday.

The ECOWAS force will be deployed alongside French soldiers monitoring a truce in Ivory Coast since the start of a rebellion on September 19 which rapidly transformed into civil war.

On Friday, Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo gave his assent to the deployment of "impartial" forces in western Ivory Coast, bordering Liberia, where civilians have suffered widespread exactions.

Liberians fighting alongside both Ivorian government forces and rebels in the area have been accused of widespread rights abuses and looting.

On May 1, during a meeting between the Ivorian chief of staff, Liberians and rebels, the French peacekeepers said they were ready to deploy about 900 men in western Ivory Coast within 48 hours.

The objective, they said, would be to "stabilise the situation in the west, control some of the entry and exit points on the frontier and chase out some external elements."

General Emmanuel Beth, the head of the French force, has said this would be subject to a ceasefire between the Ivorian belligerents, inked two days later between the rebels and government forces and respected by both sides since.

According to the pact, the two signatories accepted the deployment of "impartial" peacekeepers in the west.

ECOWAS plans to increase its military presence in Ivory Coast from 1,300 to 3,200 troops.

The regional force has been mandated by the United Nations to monitor a ceasefire line, which for the moment excludes the far west.

The first West African soldiers, a Senegalese batallion, arrived in Ivory Coast in January, three months after France sent troops to its former colony. The other soldiers are drawn from Benin, Ghana, Niger and Togo.

France has now deployed 3,900 soldiers, who also have a UN mandate to police a ceasefire between government and rebel forces.

WAR.WIRE