ABIDJAN -- Youths loyal to Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo attacked the top rebel official serving as a minister in a power-sharing government on Friday and tried to kill him, his aide said.

The attack on Communication Minister Guillaume Soro was certain to revive tensions in the West African country, which has enjoyed nearly two months of peace since a ceasefire to end a war splitting the world's top cocoa producer.

The government moved swiftly to denounce the assault as an "abominable act" and promised an immediate inquiry. It also set August 1 as the start date for disarming factions to truly end a war that has left thousands dead.

Officials at the state television station confirmed Soro had been besieged when he was on a visit to the broadcaster, which remained firmly loyal to Gbagbo during more than seven months of fighting.

Soro's aide accused staff at the television of letting the militants into the compound to attack him, Reuters reported. "They came with stones and clubs and then they tried to set on fire the building where he took refuge," Souleymane Kone told Reuters. "They tried to kill him. He was only rescued when the gendarmerie brought a tank and evacuated him in that."

Ivory Coast's so-called "Young Patriots" are virulent Gbagbo loyalists who have consistently opposed a French-brokered peace deal agreed in January to end a war that mushroomed from a failed coup last September. --- Inguiry Opened --- "I deplore what happened at the station," Acting Security Minister Zemogo Fofana told a news conference. "An inquiry has been opened."

French and West African troops patrol a ceasefire line that splits the rebel-held largely Muslim north and chunks of the west from the mostly Christian south, where Gbagbo has most of his supporters.

Soro, as well as being a minister, is the secretary-general of the main Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast rebel faction. The rebels nowadays prefer to describe themselves as "New Forces".

Though there has been no major fighting since May, big obstacles remain to lasting peace -- such as the question of disarming warring factions and restoring state authority across the country of 16 million.

The security and defence ministers promised on Friday that disarmament would begin on August 1 and should be finished by September 15, four days before the anniversary of the failed coup.

Rebels are due to give up their weapons while the army returns to barracks. Renegade soldiers among the rebels will be given the chance to return to the forces if they want or will otherwise be paid off.