Before yesterday's symbolic meeting, the two leaders have had a brief convivial telephone conversation during which they hailed the reconciliation drive.
Ten years after being forcefully evicted from power former President Laurent Gbagbo was yesterday received in audience by President Alassane Ouattara at the Presidential Palace. The meeting is the first since the return of Gbagbo to Abidjan in mid-June after a decade in exile and years of legal procedures at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Though at press time, not much had filtered from the historic meeting, most observers have hailed the move which they described as a major step towards the promotion of the ongoing reconciliation process in the country.