The President French

In accordance with the decision taken by the Council at its 5711 th meeting, I invite the representatives of Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire to participate in this meeting, in accordance with rule 37 of the Council's provisional rules of procedure.

The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. The Council is meeting in accordance with the understanding reached in its prior consultations.

After consultations among members of the Security Council, I have been authorized to make the following statement on behalf of the Council:

"The Security Council strongly condemns the attack committed on 29 June 2007 in Bouaké against the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire, Mr. Guillaume Soro, that resulted in several deaths, and any attempt to destabilize the peace process by force. It stresses that the perpetrators of this criminal act must be brought to justice.

"The Security Council recalls its support for the political agreement signed by President Laurent Gbagbo and Mr. Guillaume Soro in Ouagadougou on 4 March 2007 under the facilitation of the Chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso. It stresses that it is critical that all parties continue to work within the framework of the Ouagadougou political agreement, which is the way to settle the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire."

This statement will be issued as a document of the Security Council under the symbol S/PRST/2007/25.

The Security Council has thus concluded the present stage of its consideration of the item on the agenda.