Côte d'Ivoire leader Alassane Ouattara will meet his predecessor and former rival Laurent Gbagbo on July 27, for their first talks since Gbagbo returned to the country after a nearly 10-year absence, the presidency said Wednesday.

The meeting will take place "in the presidential palace," spokesman Amadou Coulibaly told a press conference, adding that the pair had been "in touch" by phone in early July.

The long-awaited talks are widely seen as a key to ending the country's political crisis, as the two headed rival factions in a post-election conflict in 2010-11 that claimed several thousand lives.