002 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $20.2 billion (2002)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 1.64% (2002)

Transnational Issues Italy

Disputes - international: Croatia and Italy are still trying to resolve
bilateral property and ethnic minority rights dating from World War II

Illicit drugs: important gateway for and consumer of Latin American
cocaine and Southwest Asian heroin entering the European market

This page was last updated on 1 January 2002

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Cote d'Ivoire

Introduction Cote d'Ivoire

Background: Close ties to France since independence in 1960, the
development of cocoa production for export, and foreign investment
made Cote d'Ivoire one of the most prosperous of the tropical African
states. Falling cocoa prices and political turmoil, however, sparked an
economic downturn in 1999 and 2000. On 25 December 1999, a military coup
- the first ever in Cote d'Ivoire's history - overthrew the government
led by President Henri Konan BEDIE. Presidential and legislative
elections held in October and December 2000 provoked violence due to
the exclusion of opposition leader Alassane OUATTARA. In October 2000,
Laurent GBAGBO replaced junta leader Robert GUEI as president, ending
10 months of military rule. In October 2001, President GBAGBO initiated
a two-month-long National Reconciliation Forum, but its ability to
conciliate Ivorians with one another remains unclear.

Geography Cote d'Ivoire

Location: Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between
Ghana and Liberia

Geographic coordinates: 8 00 N, 5 00 W

Map references: Africa

Area: total: 322,460 sq km water: 4,460 sq km land: 318,000 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly larger than New Mexico

Land boundaries: total: 3,110 km border countries: Burkina Faso 584 km,
Ghana 668 km, Guinea 610 km, Liberia 716 km, Mali 532 km

Coastline: 515 km

Maritime claims: 200 NM territorial sea: Climate: tropical along coast,
semiarid in far north; three seasons - warm and dry (November to March),
hot and dry (March to May), hot and wet (June to October)

Terrain: mostly flat to undulating plains; mountains in northwest

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Gulf of Guinea 0 m highest point:
Mont Nimba 1,752 m

Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, diamonds, manganese, iron ore,
cobalt, bauxite, copper, hydropower

Land use: a