EU bans ships from I.Coast port deals

Brussels, 18 Jan – (ANA) - EU-registered vessels are barred from new financial dealings with Ivory Coast's two main cocoa-exporting ports as part of sanctions imposed after November's contested election.

On Saturday, the EU froze the European assets of the two main ports in Ivory Coast -- the world's biggest cocoa exporter -- saying they were "helping to fund the illegitimate government of Mr Laurent Gbagbo".

But the head of Abidjan port dismissed the measures as "idiotic" steps whose only victims would be European firms.

Officials said the sanctions barred EU-registered vessels and companies from entering into any financial transactions with the ports, unless covered by a previously agreed contract.

"So that would essentially result in a prohibition to make business with those entities," a European Commission official who helped draft the sanctions told Reuters.

The sanctions are designed to increase pressure on incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo to step down after a November 28 election he is widely believed to have lost.

French government spokesman Gael Veyssiere said his country's interpretation of the sanctions was that EU companies or operators were barred from financial dealings with the Ivory Coast ports of Abidjan and San Pedro. (ANA)

FA/ANA/18 January 2011----------