The 10-member chief-of-staff committee will be the "prelude to a new Ivorian force," a communique said, adding that it will "fully play its role in the process of national reconciliation."

The announcement came after a meeting of the reunited forces in the central city of Bouake, the headquarters of the rebels who plunged Ivory Coast into a ruinous civil war after their September 19 rebellion.

The former rebels are now called the "new forces" after joining a national unity government in line with the French-mediated peace deal signed in January.

"Our desire is to see the start of an irreversible process for the establishment of a new Ivorian army," Colonel Kadio Miezou from the Ivorian National Armed Forces (FANCI) loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo told AFP.

Colonel Soumaila Bakayoko, chief of staff of the "new forces" added: "The hatchet has been buried and we will be on guard against anyone who tries to undo that."

WAR.WIRE