By Mathieu Bonkoungou OUAGADOUGOU, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Divided Ivory Coast's leaders aim to hold long-delayed elections in the first half of 2008, mediators said on Tuesday, earlier than the electoral commission's estimate that they could take until October. Rebels have controlled the northern half of the West African state and world's top cocoa producer since a 2002-2003 civil war but the two sides agreed a plan in March for disarmament, reunification and organisation of elections first due in 2005. "The signatories of the Ouagadougou agreement obviously envisage elections occurring by the end of the first half of 2008," said Djibril Bassole, foreign minister of Ivory Coast's northern neighbour Burkina Faso, which brokered the March deal. President Laurent Gbagbo and rebel leader Guillaume Soro, who became prime minister in April, met in Burkina Faso's capital on Tuesday with President Blaise Compaore, a mediator in the peace process, to discuss progress and technical issues. The Independent Electoral Commission, which Bassole said would set a firm date for the polls, said two months ago it could take until October 2008 to organise elections which have been postponed repeatedly while the country remains divided. Bassole said the electoral commission would set a firm date for polls which depended on progress on preparation work. Despite euphoria at first over the March peace deal, which replaced a string of failed foreign-imposed peace deals and initially aimed to hold polls by January, diplomats and donors are concerned at the slow pace of progress on practical aspects. Gbagbo will begin a three-day visit to meet the local population in the arid far north of the Ivory Coast on Wednesday, his second visit to the country's northern half since it was seized by the New Forces rebels during the war. (Writing by Peter Murphy; editing by Alistair Thomson)
