(From Kwabia Owusu-Mensah, GNA Special correspondent)

Abidjan, June 18, GNA- Madam Lagou Adjoua Henriette, Special Assistant to the Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, has commended President Kufuor and the people of Ghana for their sympathy and commitment to resolve the political conflict in Cote d'Ivoire. She said it was only Ghana that had shown greater interest in resolving the conflict that plunged the country into civil war since 2002.

Madam Adjoua Henriette gave the commendation on Wednesday when Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), led a delegation from the KMA called on her as part of a three-day official visit to Treichville in Cote d'Ivoire.

The visit which was at the invitation of the Mayor of Treichville, Mr Albert Trancois Amichia, was to launch an 'Ivorian-Ghanaian Week' and sign a Memorandum of Understanding to cement the sister-city relations between Treichville and Kumasi.

Madam Adjoua Henriette said Ghana's commitment in resolving the conflict demonstrated that Ghanaians considered Ivorians as brothers who had been separated by only artificial boundaries.

She said the sister-city twinning programme between Treichville and Kumasi would help bring the people much closer to promote good neighbourliness, socio-economic development and sub-regional integration.

Madam Adjoua Henriette, who was the former Cote d'Ivoire's Minister for Social Welfare, Women and Children's Affairs, pledged her support to the sister relationship between the two cities and said this would boost the already cordial relations that existed between the two countries. Replying, Mr Jumah said closer collaboration between neighbouring states would help promote stability, commerce and economic growth in the sub-region, adding that sub-regional integration should be the top priority of governments of neighbouring states.

He said the sister-city relationship between Treichville and Kumasi was a unique opportunity to bring the people of the two countries together.

Mr Jumah said the institution of the 'Ivorian-Ghanaian Week' was an attempt to achieve unity and appealed to all parties to support the idea.