Cote d'Ivoire president set to attend AU summit in Addis-Ababa

ABIDJAN, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Cote d'Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara is scheduled to leave for Addis-Ababa on Friday to take part in the 20th African Union (AU) Summit of the heads of state and government, an official source said on Thursday.

The Malian crisis will be the main agenda of the meeting which will officially open on Sunday in the Ethiopian capital.

The Cote d'Ivoire president who is also the chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), will use the summit to appeal for speedy mobilization of the West African force under the auspices of the International Support Mission for Mali (MISMA), to support Malian and French forces in the war against the Islamist rebels.

The 19th AU Summit, which was held in July 2012, ended with the election of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a South-African to replace Jean Ping as the chairperson of the AU Commission.