By Peter Murphy

ABIDJAN, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's rebel New Forces shrugged off concerns over delays in the divided country's peace process on Friday and underlined the importance of implementing a peace deal thoroughly, rather than in haste.

The rebels have controlled the north of the West African state since a brief 2002-2003 civil war. In March they reached an agreement with President Laurent Gbagbo to disarm and reunite the nation after years of failed foreign-backed peace efforts.

The accord banished fears of renewed fighting in the world's No. 1 cocoa producer but reconciliation euphoria has since waned with little sign of progress towards disarmament or long-delayed elections which the sides had agreed to hold by January.

"The timetable is a guideline. We're late according to who or to what?," said New Forces spokesman Sidiki Konate, also tourism minister in a reconciliation government installed in April following the deal brokered in neighbouring Burkina Faso.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said last week he was "deeply concerned" about a failure to stick to the timeline. He said a continued "slackening of momentum" would undermine the deal.

VOTER IDENTITY SCHEME

But Konate defended the work of New Forces chief Guillaume Soro, whom Gbagbo named prime minister in April, saying his government had returned civil servants to the north, improved security and launched a pre-election voter identity scheme.

He criticised the international community for "scaring" Ivorians by casting doubt on the peace process and said the government would take as long as it needed to implement key peace steps to ensure they were above political reproach.

"If we go to poorly prepared elections, you will agree with me that the consequence can only be difficult," he told reporters at a news conference in the economic capital Abidjan.

The Independent Electoral Commission says it could take until around October 2008 to organise the poll.

Voter identification, one of the most contentious parts of the peace process, began in September but mobile courts issuing papers to thousands of undocumented citizens, enabling Ivorians among them to vote, are being rolled out very slowly.

"We say again that if identification should take Ivorians a year, let's do identification (in) a year," he said.

Years of deadlock that followed the fighting have made donors impatient for progress. France has scaled down its peacekeeping force, which backs up U.N. blue helmets, to 2,500 troops from 4,000.

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