ABIDJAN, 15 January (IRIN) - The main border post between Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana remained closed on Monday, three days after an armed attack that claimed at least five lives and left several people wounded.

The assault on the town of Noe, 200 km southwest of the main city, Abidjan, occurred Thursday night when assailants armed with knives and guns attacked the posts of the gendarmerie, customs and police, the army said in a statement on Friday.

"This criminal attack caused the death of three members of the security forces and two of the assailants," the statement said. The attack was apparently launched from Ghana.

The army said some of the attackers made away with an unspecified number of Kalashnikovs stored at the border post, although some press reports said the assailants had been transporting a large quantity of weapons. Security has been reinforced in Noe, the army said.

Ivorian authorities detained four of the alleged assailants, including a man identified as a deserter from the Ivorian Air Force, and were investigating the incident.

The motive for the attack was not immediately clear. Noe is in the government-controlled area of Cote d'Ivoire, far from the rebel-occupied north of the country. Some 11,000 United Nations and French peacekeepers monitor a buffer zone between the two sides.

The New Forces rebels denied any involvement in the attack.

The incident reflects the ongoing insecurity in Cote d'Ivoire, once one of West Africa's most stable countries.

"The country is torn apart, insecurity is reigning and there is no more confidence," said a statement published on Friday by the High Council of Traditional Leaders of Cote d'Ivoire in the opposition Le Patriote newspaper.

"Homes are broken into and vehicles carjacked; shops are looted and schools are vandalised … We are asking, praying and appealing to the major actors, the leaders and all those responsible for the life and destiny of the nation to stop the local quarrels and restore the lost peace, security and confidence."

President Laurent Gbagbo, who has partially rejected a UN and African Union plan to end the country's political impasse, in December came up with his own proposals for peace. They include direct talks with the New Forces rebels.

The International Working Group on Cote d'Ivoire held its monthly meeting last Friday and said it was not opposed to Gbagbo's suggestion but that such talks must be conducted within the framework of UN Resolution 1721. Passed last November, it endorses recommendations of the AU to give Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny control of the security forces and all the necessary powers and means implement the peace plan.

The working group proposed on Friday that the UN Security Council leaves it to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the AU to bring Cote d'Ivoire's political actors together to break the impasse.

"The blockage can prolong the suffering of the people and aggravate political and social tensions," the group said.

It reaffirmed its support for direct dialogue of the parties involved to find solutions to key problems such as disarmament, the identification of undocumented Ivorians, restructuring the armed forces and holding free and fair elections.

Presidential elections have been postponed twice in the past two years because of failure to resolve these issues.

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