A delegation of three presidents will return to Ivory Coast on January 3 to continue negotiations with incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo, the chairman of regional bloc ECOWAS Goodluck Jonathan says.

"They are going back on the 3rd of January and when they come back from this second visit the outcome will determine the next action," Jonathan, who is also Nigeria's president, said after a meeting with the envoys.

The presidents of Benin, Sierra Leone and Cape Verde were sent by ECOWAS to Ivory Coast on Tuesday to tell Gbagbo to cede power to rival presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara - believed by world powers and African neighbours to have won a November election - or face military force.

source: Reuters