ABIDJAN, April 20 (Reuters) - Two ministers were suspended from Ivory Coast's new reconciliation government on Friday for one month without pay after local media reported they had exchanged punches, a government official said.

Local newspapers said Trade Minister Youssouf Soumahoro and Technical Education Minister Moussa Dosso, who swapped portfolios in the new government, came to blows in a row over office furniture and because one ministry had a larger budget.

"The proven events which cast discredit upon the government ... are all the more regrettable in that they were committed by ministers from the previous government who had been given codes of good conduct," said government spokesman Amadou Kone reading a statement on state television.

Ivory Coast has been divided in two since a 2002-2003 civil war in which rebels seized its northern half, but the world's top cocoa grower has made recent strides towards peace as the sides implement a home-grown peace accord announced in March.

Kone said rebel leader Guillaume Soro, who was made prime minister after the deal, announced his decision to suspend the two ministers, both of whom represent the rebel movement in the unity government, at the new cabinet's first meeting on Friday.

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