(Recasts, adds comment from Secretary-General's special envoy to Ivory Coast)

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council expressed "deep concern" on Friday over stalled Ivory Coast peace talks as the top U.N. official in the West African nation appealed for rival groups not to waste their chance for peace.

Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa grower, has been divided into a rebel-held north and government-run south since a brief 2002-2003 civil war. French and U.N. peacekeeping troops protect a fragile cease-fire line separating the rival forces.

Despite a string of U.N.-backed peace deals, Ivory Coast has made little progress. The West African economic bloc ECOWAS agreed on recommendations in October to try and move the peace process forward, but kept the details secret.

Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, the current ECOWAS chair, said last month he would broker talks between Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and rebel chief Guillaume Soro.

"I would like to say to them, 'Don't blow it this time'," said Pierre Schori, the U.N. Secretary-General's Ivory Coast envoy, who steps down on Thursday after two years in the job. "There will be no more excuses for not coming to an agreement now."

"How long shall the Ivorian leaders challenge international opinion by not coming to peace? The Security Council has ... adopted 22 resolutions on Cote d'Ivoire and 20 presidential statements in four years."

In a statement, the Security Council "expressed deep concern at the delay in the implementation of the decisions taken by ECOWAS." It also welcomed Gbagbo and Soro's commitment to talk in a bid to move the peace plan forward and "encouraged Compaore to facilitate the rapid conclusion of an agreement."

Slovak U.N. Ambassador Peter Burian, the council president for February, also said the council was considering a possible trip to the Ivory Coast.

"Council members thought it might be useful at an appropriate time to realize this mission to Cote d'Ivoire," he told reporters. "It's my interpretation that if the council decides to go to Cote d'Ivoire then we will combine it with visits to other states."

On Jan. 10 the Security Council extended the mandate of the peacekeepers for a further six months and authorized U.N. troops to help with preparations for long-stalled elections.

The U.N. mission is authorized to help protect the teams running the voter registration process and provide technical assistance to the government and its electoral commission as they prepare for the elections, to be held by Oct. 31.

The civil war was launched by rebels seeking to drive Gbagbo from power. Gbagbo's five-year term, which ran out in 2005, has been extended twice by the Security Council in anticipation of elections.

The second extension took place in November as part of a road map empowering Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny instead of the president to carry out key government functions, including organizing the election.

But Gbagbo has waged a power struggle with Banny and warned he will not accept aspects of the U.N. plan he says violate his constitutional powers.

AlertNet news is provided by