Rebel military commanders watered down their threat to withdraw from a national reconciliation government and ordered all their ministers to return to rebel capital Bouake.

The day before, Spanish officials discovered a container with Kalashnikov assault rifles, machineguns, sub-machineguns and 560 magazines when they inspected a ship off Barcelona. The ship's manifest showed the container was loaded in South Korea and was headed for Senegal, but police suspected that the Ivory Coast was a more likelier destination. If this is true, one can only wonder who the recipients were - the army and rebel forces seem to have all the weapons they need, which leaves the pro-government youth militias in the port city of `Adibjan as likely suspects. - Adam Geibel