By Salim Bamba BOUAKE, Ivory Coast, July 29 (Reuters) - With its hotels repainted and potholes repaired, Ivory Coast's rebel stronghold Bouake is preparing for the first visit by the president since a civil war split the country nearly five years ago. President Laurent Gbagbo's visit to the north, seized by the New Forces rebels in a brief 2002-2003 civil war, would have been unthinkable just months ago, but a March peace deal between the two sides has dissipated many of the tensions. "We're exhausted by five years of conflict and we want to have peace now to build our futures. This visit is an opportunity to bury all the grudges," said Martin Koffi, a rebel soldier patrolling the town's newly swept streets. Youths leaning out of cars have been going street to street calling on Bouake's residents to turn out to greet the rebels' former arch enemy when he comes on Monday to lead a ceremony to burn weapons in a symbolic start to disarmament. Gbagbo appointed rebel leader Guillaume Soro prime minister shortly after reaching the agreement, setting him the ambitious task of overseeing disarmament and reunification as well as organising long-delayed elections, all by early next year. The government has said seven African heads of state, from Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal and South Africa will attend the one-day ceremony, dubbed "The Flame of Peace". Government troops who fought the rebels for control of Bouake during the war patrolled with them on Sunday atop pickup trucks, as part of a security plan which also involves some of the country's 11,000 United Nations and French peacekeepers. Some of Ivory Coast's many musicians and singers were due to perform on Sunday night at a concert in Bouake's football 26,000-capacity soccer stadium, where Monday's ceremony will also take place. But for all of the pomp, the rebels still have not committed to an actual disarmament programme and there has been no progress on other key aspects of the new peace deal, including the crucial distribution of papers enabling Ivorians without documents to vote. And exactly one month after unidentified attackers fired rockets on Soro's plane as it landed in Bouake, people have been left guessing as to who was trying to scupper the peace process, while a U.N. inquiry into the incident gets under way. Soro was unhurt but four of his aides were killed. Some Bouake residents see the ceremony as a sign of a return to normality, even if there are lingering doubts about what it is supposed to signify. "The main thing for me is peace and I hope this visit will be the real start of disarmament to lead us to peace. Everyone's tired of this," said Alice Sialou, 20, who runs a roadside kiosk charging passers-by to make calls on her mobile phone.
