By Tim Cocks and Laurent Prieur
ABIDJAN/NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo has paid over 60 percent of civil servant salaries, his government said on Friday, suggesting Western sanctions meant to starve him of funds and force him to leave have not had full effect.
The north of the country, which mostly supports Gbagbo's opponent Alassane Ouattara, remained without electricity and water service, but a week of clashes between supporters of the two rivals appeared to have eased.
There was little hope for African leaders meeting in Mauritania on Friday to quickly resolve the crisis, but one delegation member said the panel had the basis for agreement, following clear splits in opinions over what to do.
The world's top cocoa grower has been paralysed by Gbagbo's refusal to step down after a November election that internationally certified results showed Ouattara had won. The United Nations says at least 365 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes as a result.
Some 200,000 have left the Abidjan neighbourhood of Abobo alone during days of urban warfare last week. International cocoa futures have been regularly breaking new 32-year highs on supply fears due to the violence.
Gbagbo's government in a statement late on Thursday said it had paid the salaries of more than 60,000 civil servants, or about 62 percent of the salary roll.
As part of broader efforts to show the situation was under control, his government also opened the recently nationalised local unit of BNP Paribas, and customers rushed to withdraw cash that has dried up as the banking sector collapsed in recent weeks.
There have been two days of relative calm in the main city Abidjan and elsewhere after outbreaks of fighting led to warnings of a return to full-blown civil war.
But a Reuters witness in the north, which has been run by rebels since a 2002-3 war, said the region remained without water and electricity since it was cut off on February 28.
"This situation is desperate," student Thierry Konan, 30, who lives in the main rebel-held city of Bouake, said.
A U.N. source said the world body's mission had been told that pro-Gbagbo forces had ordered the electricity company at the Kossou Dam, near the capital, Yamoussoukro, to cut power to the north.
"All the CNO (rebel-held centre, north and west) zone is today in a state of acute humanitarian crisis," said Michel Zorro, special advisor to the rebel administration on humanitarian affairs. "All the hospitals, all the clinics are in a state of dysfunction. Women and children are dying."
The spokesman for Gbagbo's government was unavailable for comment but said on Thursday it was having to reduce consumption of electricity due to sanctions imposed on it.
AFRICAN DIPLOMACY, DIVISIONS
In a sign Gbagbo was worried about fuel supplies, state TV announced this week a ban on filling jerrycans with petrol.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that there was "increasing evidence that both sides are involved in human rights abuses, including rapes, abductions and killings."
The leaders of South Africa, Chad, Burkina Faso and Tanzania met in Mauritania for talks on Ivory Coast on Friday.
Expectations are low after divisions between African leaders over the crisis but one diplomat was more upbeat.
"Today there is a basis for an agreement within the high level panel. However we must finalise our decision before tonight," the diplomat added, asking not to be named.
Another diplomat said this was the AU's "last chance."
The panel is due to arrive in Abidjan on Saturday.
The International Crisis Group think-tank has warned that the most likely scenario is a return to armed conflict that risks dragging in regional armies, led by Burkina Faso, which has openly supported Ouattara as the elected president.
The ICG called on West African leaders, under regional grouping ECOWAS, to retake leadership in resolving the crisis.
(Additional reporting by Charles Bamba in Bouake and Ange Aboa in Abidjan and Laura MacInnis in Geneva; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Peter Graff)
