UN ENVOY DECLAIRES ALASSANE OUATTARA AS WINNER IN COTE D'IVOIRE RACE.

A top UN envoy told the UN Security Council today that opposition leader Alassane Ouattara won Cote d’Ivoire’s disputed presidential election. “There was only one winner — with a clear margin,” Mr Choi Young-Jin, special representative of the UN secretary general in Cote d’Ivoire, told the council. Meanwhile, an aide to Cote d’Ivoire’s incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo announced a new government today, rivalling the one declared by Mr Ouattara. Mr Gbagbo’s new chief of staff, his hardline ally Desire Tagro, read out the names of the ministers to reporters after the cabinet held its first meeting at the presidential palace in Abidjan. They included former ambassador to the United Nations Alcide Djedje as the foreign minister and Charles Ble Goude, the leader of the fiercely pro-Gbagbo Young Patriots student movement as minister for youth. Mr Gbagbo, 65, who has been in power for 10 years, faces wide international pressure to step down after the United Nations and other powers recognised Mr Ouattara as the rightful president. Gbagbo’s allies crowned him president after annulling election results that gave Mr Ouattara victory, alleging irregularities following an election marred by clashes said to have left at least 20 people dead. Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama wrote to Mr Gbagbo urging him to cede power to Mr Ouattara, a US official told AFP in Washington, adding that the United States, like the European Union, would consider sanctions on Mr Gbagbo if he clings on.