France signs multimillion dollar partnership accord with Burkina Faso

France signed a Ђ302.4 million (US$387 million) partnership accord Friday with its former colony Burkina Faso during a weeklong working visit by the president of the west African country.

Photo: France signs multimillion dollar partnership accord with Burkina Faso

The funds are intended for a series of projects in the education, infrastructure and water and sanitation sectors.

The project, which will run over five years, "illustrates France's confidence in the development of your country," Aid and Cooperation Minister Brigitte Girardin said at a lunch toast for her guest.

Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, in France since Monday, also met with President Jacques Chirac. Talks between the two focused on the situation in Ivory Coast. In the past, Ivory Coast accused Compaore of supporting insurgents.

On Thursday, Ivory Coast rebel and army commanders agreed that pro-government militia fighters will begin laying down arms on June 8, the first step of a repeatedly delayed nationwide disarmament campaign.

However, no date was set for the start of a broader disarmament that would include rebel forces who control the north and loyalist army troops in the south, an army official in Abidjan said.

Disarmament is a key requisite to presidential elections which were postponed last year and are now due by October.

"The question of disarmament will therefore return as a priority to secure the entire zone," Compaore told reporters.

On a lighter note, he said he wants to see the Ivory Coast team take on France in the World Cup.

"I like all the African teams, but I'm a fan of the Ivory Coast Elephants," he said.

His visit here, which ends Sunday, departed from the traditional working visits with trips to far-flung French provinces, such as Larzac, north of Montpellier, to work on potential partnerships with regional authorities in Burkina Faso.

Girardin praised the political stability of Burkina Faso and its economy, marked by growth and a record cotton production.

Compaore, a former army captain who rose to power in a bloody 1987 coup, won another five-year term with a landslide victory in Nov. 13 elections and took the oath of office in late December.

Landlocked Burkina Faso, bordering the Sahara Desert in west Africa, is among the world's poorest countries, with high rates of unemployment and illiteracy. The country gained independence from France in 1960, reports AP.

O.Ch.