The country, the world's top producer of cocoa, announced the formation of a new electoral commission after having named a replacement government, key steps toward setting long-delayed elections and ending the demonstrations in which at least seven people have been killed.
"We will meet with the RDHP and PIT (opposition parties) to announce word of ending the demonstrations," said spokesman for the opposition groups Alphonse Djedje Mady, without specifying when the meeting or announcement would take place.
The opposition had vowed to continue protests against Gbagbo until he reinstated the commission and the government.
The new electoral commission told a news conference earlier on Friday its president was Youssouf Bakayoko, an opposition PDCI party member. The members of the commission were chosen in a deal cut between Ivory Coast's political parties, and the commission then elected Bakayoko to lead it.
"The result will be to organize elections that are just, transparent and have results acceptable to everyone," Bakayoko, a former foreign affairs minister, said in a brief statement after his election.
Gbagbo disbanded the government and electoral commission after accusing former commission chief Robert Mambe, also a PDCI member, of illegally adding names to the voter list to boost the opposition. Mambe has denied trying to add the names.
That decision has delayed a poll that was years overdue when it was scheduled for March, sparking a public outcry that led to violent street protests.
Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, a former rebel during the 2002-3 civil war, announced a new government on Tuesday, with places for both opposition parties, after a compromise mediated by Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore.
The number of ministries was cut to 27 from 32, with the opposition getting a similar proportion to before. Only 16 of the ministers were named, however, as the opposition refused to put forward nominations in protest.
The main opposition coalition had said it would only join the new government once the electoral commission was re-established. Mady said on Friday opposition parties were still negotiating with Soro over their participation.
"We are not going to enter the government like wind enters a windmill," he said.
However, getting the electoral commission back on track is regarded as far more important than the government, which has been transitional since its mandate expired in 2005.
Elections are seen as the only way of restoring legitimacy to the government and ending the crisis in Ivory Coast, which has persisted since the war split it in two.
Public anger is raging after years of delays. The military has opened fire on protesters in the past few days, killing at least seven. Cocoa output, however, has been largely unaffected.
Now that the electoral commission is in place, it still has to finish the job of drawing up a final voter list, first by dealing with all the contested names on the provisional list.
Some 6 million voters registered for the poll, but around a million were contested on grounds of nationality, a divisive issue that started the civil war in the first place.
Frequent setbacks to the country's peace process have left Ivorians cynical about politics and their leaders.
"If it means peace can come back to our country then I guess that's good," said fruit seller Odette Brou, 30, on hearing of the new commission. "We're really tired of all this."
