Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo Tuesday began talks with rebels and political parties to cobble a unity government to end a six-month war as the new prime minister was given sweeping powers to end the ruinous conflict.

A new so-called "security council" set up on Friday to monitor the defence and interior ministries in a new power-sharing government met for the first time, under tight security, in the inland capital of Yamoussoukro.

The venue -- a large auditorium complex -- was guarded by gun-toting French and west African peacekeepers. The latter comprised mainly Togolese and Ghanaian soldiers.

The 15 members of the council include Gbagbo, Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, representatives of the three rebel groups and seven political parties, as well as delegates from the army and gendarmerie.

All the parties were represented except a minor rebel movement based in western Ivory Coast.

After the meeting of the security council, consensus Prime Minister Diarra is scheduled to name his government on Thursday.

According to reports, it will comprise 41 members.

"Uptil now we were merely in talks but now we have entered a concrete phase," a leading member of the government who is close to Gbagbo said.

He said the embattled president was "calm".

The meeting comes after Gbagbo gave sweeping powers to Diarra giving him a free hand in dealing with 16 specific issues for a period of six months, with the option of renewing his powers, to bring back peace to the world's top cocoa producer.

These include the disarmament of rebel forces holding the north and the west since September 19; the re-establishment of the government's authority across the country and the drafting of a special law on naturalisation.

The latter is crucial as Ivory Coast's ethnic and religious chasms have widened after the war and many of the numerous immigrants totalling about a quarter of the population have been targeted for hate attacks after Abidjan accused neighbouring Burkina Faso for the unrest.

The other key areas in which Diarra will have a great degree of autonomy relate to the freeing of the prisoners of war; fixing the date for new elections and amending land holding laws.

Diarra was also given a free rein to promote "the neutrality and independence of the media," to ensure "the protection of human rights" and to "fight against impunity" or rights violations.

The decree also stipulated that Diarra would have to keep Gbagbo posted regularly on progress in his mission to bring back peace.

The security council was one of the main planks of an accord signed by parties to the Ivorian conflict on Saturday in the Ghanaian capital Accra, after the main rebel group dropped its claims to the defence and interior ministries, thus removing a major obstacle in the formation of a unity government.

The rebels, who claimed they were promised the security posts under a French-brokered deal accepted by Gbagbo in January, had earlier insisted the ministries were not negotiable.

The chairman of the African Union Commission Amara Essy Tuesday hailed the Accra accord.

"The consensus reached by the Ivorian parties constitutes an important step in the implemention of the Linas-Marcoussis Accord and in the long-term resolution of the crisis in Ivory Coast," he said.

Even as the delegates in Accra were moving forward in their quest for peace, fresh fighting broke out in western Ivory Coast.

At least 60 civilians were killed in fighting Friday in the western Ivorian town of Bangolo, diplomatic and military sources in Abidjan said Monday.

They said most of the victims' had had their throats slit or been mutilated.

Earlier Monday, an international committee monitoring the Ivorian peace process confirmed in a statement that several people had died in the fighting, and said a document on the issue would be handed over to the UN Security Council - Sapa-AFP.