(21 Jan 2011)
1. Wide of start of news conference
2. Cutaway media
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of Kenya:
"We will continue to walk the extra mile in search for a peaceful resolution of this conflict because we know what the alternative holds. We therefore are trying to explore this avenue until it's completely exhausted. We have said that sanctions can also be applied simultaneously with these peaceful negotiations, but the use of legitimate force is there and we have said that it is the ultimate resort, that is, the very last resort if everything else has failed."
4. Cutaway media
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of Kenya:
"There is still some chance and that's why I am saying we are still going to explore this route. Why we were not able to get to the negotiations is because Mr. Gbagbo reneged on his promise to remove the blockades that he has placed around Hotel du Golf where Mr Ouattara and his team are staying right now. They are saying that they cannot negotiate under conditions of siege, that they are like prisoners in their own country, so they are asking that this blockade be removed so that they can be able to negotiate as free people. "
6. End of news conference
STORYLINE:
Kenya's Prime Minister on Friday said that he would continue with efforts towards a peaceful resolution to the political crisis in Ivory Coast.
Raila Odinga was speaking at a news conference in the Kenyan capital Nairobi following his visit to the troubled West African state on Wednesday.
In his role as African Union mediator, Odinga cut short the latest attempt at negotiations saying that incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo had "reneged on his promise."
Gbagbo had previously agreed to remove the blockade around the Golf Hotel where his rival Alassane Ouattara is staying.
In the almost two months since the presidential election, Gbagbo has refused to cede power even though the international community says Ouattara won the vote.
Odinga said that the African Union would explore every possible option to resolve the situation without resorting to force.
"Sanctions can also be applied simultaneously with these peaceful negotiations, but the use of legitimate force is there," he said. "That is the very last resort if everything else has failed."
The West African bloc of countries known as ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) has threatened to oust Gbagbo by force if negotiations fail, but has set no deadline for such an intervention.
On Friday Gbagbo ordered the military to stop and search United Nations vehicles in the latest escalation of hostilities between the man who refuses to leave office and the global body that declared his rival the election winner.
Local UN officials rejected the order and said international law gives the UN freedom of movement.
Last week, mobs and security forces allied to Gbagbo attacked at least six UN vehicles, setting some ablaze and wounding two people.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned the violence directed at UN personnel, saying it constitutes crimes under international law.
Gbagbo's government already has tried to order UN peacekeepers out of the country, claiming that they are no longer impartial after the UN certified election results showing Ouattara won the November 28 presidential runoff vote.
The UN Security Council voted on Wednesday to send an additional 2-thousand troops.
The UN's refugee agency also on Friday urged nearby countries to allow Ivorian refugees to stay.
Ivory Coast was divided into a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south by a 2002-2003 civil war.
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