By Peter Murphy ABIDJAN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - An identification scheme to prepare for long-delayed elections in war-divided Ivory Coast will resume this month, the prime minister's office said, after a previous attempt was violently opposed. The scheme aims to deliver identity papers to an estimated 3.5 million people born but never registered in the West African state, enabling eligible Ivorians to vote in polls seen as key to ending four years of low-level conflict. The divisive question of national identity -- who is a "pure" Ivorian -- lies at the heart of the conflict in the world's top cocoa grower which has been split into a rebel-held north and government south since a 2002/03 civil war. Hardline supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo fear opposition-supporting foreigners could use the scheme to fraudulently obtain Ivorian nationality and gain voting rights. Thousands of economic migrants from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, mainly Muslims, have settled in the north of Ivory Coast and even in the southern economic capital, Abidjan. At least two people were killed when Gbagbo supporters and opposition youths clashed when it was launched in July. It ground to a halt weeks later amid on-going protests and bickering over legal procedures. However, the prime minister's office said late on Friday the scheme would be relaunched on Dec. 18 and that 60 more tribunals, which hold hearings to determine nationality, had been set up to speed distribution of the identity papers. "The prime minister invites the entire population ... to mobilise to guarantee the total success of this important phase of the process of ending the crisis," a statement from the office of the U.N.-backed premier, Charles Konan Banny, said. POWER STRUGGLE Tensions have been high since a power-struggle arose between Gbagbo and Banny over the president's decision to reinstate three senior civil servants accused of negligence in a toxic waste scandal that killed 10 and made thousands ill. The conflict raises the question of whether Gbagbo will allow Banny to exercise executive powers attributed to him by the latest U.N.-backed peace plan which tasks him with organising presidential polls and overseeing disarmament. The head of Gbagbo's ruling Ivorian Popular Front party, Pascal Affi N'Guessan, on Friday rejected Banny's plan to resume the scheme because he did not trust the premier and said rebel disarmament and reunification of the country should come first. Opposition youth leaders say at least three of their supporters were killed when security forces opened fire during scattered protests they have staged in the last fortnight to demand Gbagbo revoke the officials' reinstatement and back the peace process. The U.N. plan foresees elections by the end of October 2007, after two previous deadlines this year and last year were missed amid squabbling over the details of the peace blueprint. It extended Gbagbo's mandate for a final 12 months but the president says he will remain the country's lawful leader until an elected successor is sworn in. (Additional reporting Loucoumane Coulibaly)
