World-leading cocoa producer Ivory Coast Tuesday resumed exports, which had been frozen for weeks as part of efforts to put pressure on former president Laurent Gbagbo, now under house arrest.

Exports resumed with the departure from the main city Abidjan of a ship that port officials said was loaded with 1,700 tonnes of cocoa beans, an AFP correspondent reported.

The ship was headed to the port of San Pedro, 370 kilometres (230 miles) to the west, where it was to pick up another 7,000-8,000 tonnes, port officials said. It would then leave for the United States, they said.

Alassane Ouattara, who was sworn in as president last week, called in January for an embargo on cocoa exports to put financial pressure on Gbagbo, who was refusing to give up power after losing elections in November.

The call was backed by European sanctions that were supported by major traders and halted the country's cocoa trade, which represents 35 per cent of the world supply.

The freeze led the cocoa price to hit the highest level since 1979 on New York markets. Close to 500,000 tonnes of cocoa beans meanwhile collected at the Abidjan and San Pedro ports.

Forces for Ouattara arrested Gbagbo on April 11, ending the nearly five-month election standoff during which around 3,000 people were killed and around one million fled their homes as charges of atrocities mounted.

Gbagbo faces a raft of criminal charges and Ouattara, sworn in on Friday, has vowed reconciliation to heal the west African nation.

But as normal routines return, new evidence of mass killings has emerged after bodies and skeletons were recovered as recently as last week in parts of battle-scarred Abidjan.

Gbagbo is being held in the far-northern town of Korhogo, nearly 600 kilometres (370 miles) from Abidjan where he was dramatically hauled from his home after a 15-day battle that drew in UN and French forces.

The 65-year-old was visited Saturday by state lawyers investigating charges of abuses and misappropriation of public funds.

Similar allegations have been levelled against his wife Simone, being held in Odienne in the northwest, and nearly 200 figures in the former regime, who are also under house arrest in various parts of the country.

Abidjan has largely resumed business: banks have reopened, civil servants have received two months of outstanding pay, students are back at school and even the morning traffic jams have returned.

But many doubt reconciliation can be achieved and entire villages in the west, close to the border with Liberia, remain devastated by abuses from both sides.

A UN human rights team has begun probing killings in Abidjan's Yopougon district after UN workers on Friday found 68 bodies in 10 graves.

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said meanwhile he intends to investigate massacres by both sides in a conflict which raised fears of a Rwanda-style genocide.

Nearly 30,000 displaced people are sheltering in a Catholic mission at Duekoue in the west while more than 100,000 have taken refuge in neighbouring Liberia.

"They told us to go back to our homes but those who killed our brothers -- are they not going to come back?" said one frightened resident at the mission.

Ouattara has announced the establishment of a South African-style Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

"It's the start of a new era of reconciliation and unity between all the daughters and all the sons of our dear Ivory Coast," Ouattara said after he took the oath at the presidential palace.

Cocoa -- the basis for chocolate -- and coffee account for 20 percent of Ivory Coast gross domestic product and 40 percent of its export revenues.

channelnewsasia.com