I.Coast president vows to crush rebels, defends his regime.

(From Agence France Presse)

Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo launched a spirited defence of his regime in his New Year's message as he promised to win a three-month war against rebels holding half the world's top cocoa producer.

Gbagbo's address came hours after the main rebel group made its first public announcement since the September 19 uprising, saying it was poised for victory.

The embattled Gbagbo said he would submit a new peace plan "from the first days of the new year" to national politicians and regional leaders to defuse the worst crisis in Ivory Coast's history.

West African leaders are trying to mediate an end to the fighting, which threatens to destabilise the volatile sub-region that had already witnessed two bloody civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Gbagbo, who in 2000 replaced a military regime that ruled briefly after the country's first coup in December 1999, said he had helped re-establish Ivory Coast's lost reputation as an oasis of stablility and prosperity in troubled west Africa.

"We regained the confidence of the international community and of investors," he said and named several other "achievements" including the reform of the cocoa-coffee sector, the launch of a universal medical insurance scheme and other social welfare measures.