LAGOS, Sept. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- West African leaders on Friday held a summit in Nigeria aimed at finding a political solution to the protracted Cote d'Ivoire crisis that has effectively split world's largest cocoa producer into two with former rebels holding the north.

    More than half heads of state from the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), including the group's chairman, Niger President Mamadou Tandja, are attending the summit in Abuja, Nigeria's capital.

    In his opening remarks, Tandja said the situation in Cote d' Ivoire had remained "very dicey" in spite of international efforts.

    "The political situation has taken a downturn for the worse since August 31, and it is imperative that we look for a way out,"he said.

    He urged the ECOWAS leaders who had been joined by United Nations and African Union (AU) officials for the talks to strive toward finding a quick and sustainable solution to the crisis.

    The leaders, also including those of Nigeria, Senegal, Benin, Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana, Sierra Leone, are also discussing the mandate of Cote d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo that expires at the end of October.

    Gbagbo himself was however absent, accusing the country's neighbors Burkina Faso and Mali of backing the rebels.

    The president had warned early this week in a speech broadcast on national radio and television that he would never accept a peace proposal brokered by the ECOWAS.

    "Cote d'Ivoire will never agree to allow these countries to decide its fate while they are both judges and players," he said then.

    A series of mediation efforts, including the latest by AU-appointed mediator and South African President Thabo Mbeki, had yielded little results. Neither side stuck to the disarmament deadlines set by Mbeki to allow the presidential polls scheduled for October 30 to go ahead.

    The rebels said the South African mediation team was biased in favor of Gbagbo and asked for a transitional government to replace him after the expiration of his presidential tenure on October 30.

    Gbagbo reiterated his determination to stay on as head of stateuntil new elections can be held.

    A spokeswoman for Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, also the head of the African Union, who called for the summit, said he was very concerned about the situation in Cote d'Ivoire and that he would convene a special AU meeting on the topic next week.

    A former French colony, Cote d'Ivoire was plunged into a civil war in September 2002 after a failed coup. Since then, it has been split into the rebel-held north and the government-controlled south. Enditem