A deadline for all Ivory Coast factions to cease fighting came into effect today, with all sides vowing to abide by the accord despite clashes flaring right to the end.
The rebels and the army blamed each other for fighting yesterday near the rebel town of Danane, close to the border with anarchic Liberia. The accusations came just as both sides signed the truce in the city of Abidjan to warm smiles and handshakes.
The army said in a statement last night it had been attacked three times by rebel forces in the west of Ivory Coast and accused the country's three main rebel groups of having repeatedly violated previous ceasefires.
It said that despite this the army "cherished the secret hope" of seeing its Ivorian brothers "come to their senses".
The rebels said today fighting had come to a halt after midnight and that they were confident the new ceasefire, meant to end more than seven months of civil war in the West African country, would hold.
They dismissed yesterday's clashes, some 600 km (400 miles) from Abidjan, as a last-minute attempt by Liberians allied to President Laurent Gbagbo's forces to gain ground ahead of the truce.
Once the stable centre of conflict-ridden West Africa, Ivory Coast slipped into war last September after a failed coup that had its roots in long-standing ethnic divisions. Thousands of people have been killed and more than a million driven from their homes.
More limited truces have been agreed before and a French-brokered peace deal has started to make headway, but clashes have continued in the west, threatening to plunge the world's top cocoa producer back into all-out war.
Troops from former colonial power France said yesterday they were prepared to move swiftly into the west once it was clear the new ceasefire was being respected.
War in Ivory Coast is entangled with years of savage conflict in neighbouring Liberia, where President Charles Taylor's forces are battling rebels on several fronts.
The same ethnic groups - with their tribal rivalries - straddle the border and the two countries have in the past accused each other of supporting their rebel enemies.
But Mr Gbagbo and Mr Taylor agreed last week to the deployment of a joint force to secure their porous common border, with the help of French and West African troops.