The head of the African Union (AU) on Sunday defended Ivory Coast's peace accord brokered by France last month, but called for renegotiation of the ministerial portfolios handed to rebels under the unpopular deal.

Amara Essy, a former Ivorian foreign minister now serving as interim president of the newborn AU's executive, was speaking on the eve of the organisation's first summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

"The principle of the accord is sound," Essy said.

"There has been compromise on both sides."
But he added: "The distribution of portfolios is something different. There may be formulas to accommodate all sides, to reassure everybody. I think this is crucial."
The Ivory Coast peace accord, brokered on January 24 in the French town of Marcoussis, has unleashed a backlash of anti-French protests and daily rioting in Abidjan, the capital of the former French colony.

Gbagbo has dithered over the deal he accepted before UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and African leaders last weekend, but called it into question upon his return home by calling it a set of "proposals".

The pact provides for a new unity government headed by a consensus prime minister. The rebels say Gbagbo agreed to proposals giving them the defence and interior ministries although this was not mentioned in the joint written text.

Gbagbo's supporters say the pact limits his powers and is a humiliation, while the armed forces and five leading political parties have declared they will not accept rebels in the interior and security ministries.

The main rebel group meanwhile warned Sunday of an ultimatum to President Laurent Gbagbo if he continued to drag his feet over the formation of a national unity government.

The AU summit was convened to fine-tune the Constitutive Act of the pan-African body that last year replaced the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), but the crisis in Ivory Coast is among hotter topics that are expected to clamour for African leaders' attention, along with the looming US-led war on Iraq and conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Sudan- Sapa-AFP.