Ivory Coast's two main opposition leaders firmed up an alliance on Sunday that could enable former IMF official Alassane Ouattara to unseat President Laurent Gbagbo in the second round of the country's post-war election. The long-delayed poll in the world's top cocoa grower is meant to reunite and spur investment in the once prosperous West African nation after war in 2002-3 split it in two and left the north in the hands of rebels. A peaceful first round on Oct. 31 resulted in Gbagbo leading with 38 percent, but falling short of an outright win so he will face Ouattara, who scored 32 percent.

Attention is now turning to the potential role as king-maker that Henri Konan Bedie, a former president who came third with 25 percent of the vote, can assume in a Nov. 21 second round. "(We) call on militants, supporters and all voters to come together around (Ouattara's) candidacy," Bedie said in a statement on Sunday after a meeting of the RHDP alliance, which brought together four parties loyal to Bedie, Ouattara and two other minor candidates. The four parties had signed a pre-election pact that the losers would support whoever went through to a second round against Gbagbo, but Sunday's statement was the first confirmation the deal was still in place for the Nov. 21 poll.

Although Ouattara and Bedie's combined vote in the first round was well over 50 percent it is not clear how many of Bedie's core voters, drawn largely from the populous central and southern Baoule tribe, will back a northerner - and one who has been accused of having links to the rebellion.