Troops besiege palace of Ivory Coast president

Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo was today clinging to power as opposition forces cornered him in his palace.

Supporters of democratically-elected Alassane Ouattara said they attacked Mr Gbagbo's residence in the main city of Abidjan in a final bid to topple him.

Rebels are now in control of 80 per cent of the West African country including the capital, Yamoussoukro, the important cocoa port of San Pedro and state television after their four-day offensive met little resistance from the regular army.

Gunfire and heavy artillery could be heard and soldiers in camouflage raced across the waterside highway in pick-up trucks mounted with machineguns.

As his forces massed on the outskirts of Abidjan, Mr Ouattara made a final appeal to Mr Gbagbo to step down and called on the rest of the army to defect.

"(My fighters) have come to restore democracy and ensure respect of the vote by the people. Today they are at the doorstep of Abidjan," he said.
"To all those who are still hesitating, whether you are generals, superior officers, officers, sub officers, rank-and-file there is still time to join your brothers-in-arms." By mid-afternoon, as many as 50,000 soldiers, police and gendarmes had abandoned Mr Gbagbo, said Choi Young-jin, the head of the United Nations mission stationed in Ivory Coast.

"Only the Republican Guard and Gbagbo's special forces have remained loyal", guarding the palace, he said.

Mr Ouattara was declared the winner of the election by the country's election commission in results verified by international observers. But after a decade in power, Mr Gbagbo refused to step down, arming citizen militias and recruiting foreign mercenaries to defend his grip on power.

Up to one million people have fled the fighting and at least 490 people have been killed since the election, most of them supporters of Mr Ouattara.