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France expects swift exit by Gbagbo

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https://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/06/us-ivorycoast-idUSTRE73014Z20110406

(Reuters) - The United Nations and France say Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo is on the point of ceding power to his presidential rival, whose forces are reported to have driven him into a bunker under his presidential residence.

But a defiant Gbagbo denied he was willing to surrender despite a fierce assault by forces loyal to his rival Alassane Ouattara backed by U.N. and French helicopter strikes.

Gbagbo told French television channel LCI his army had just called for a ceasefire after its weaponry was destroyed by the air strikes and suggested talks with Ouattara, whose victory in November's presidential election was certified by the U.N.

"I'm not a kamikaze. I love life. My voice is not the voice of a martyr, no, no, no, I'm not looking for death. It's not my aim to die," Gbagbo, said by diplomats to be holed up under the presidential palace, told the channel by telephone.

"For peace to return to Ivory Coast, I and Ouattara, the two of us have to talk," he added.

The long-delayed election in the world's top cocoa producing nation was meant to end a 2002-2003 civil war, but Gbagbo's refusal to cede power has plunged the country into violence that has killed over 1,500 people.

The International Criminal Court prosecutor said on Tuesday he was in talks with West African states about referring alleged atrocities in the Ivory Coast to the court after a reported massacre in the west of the country.

Over the past week, forces loyal to Ouattara launched a major assault on Gbagbo's last strongholds in Abidjan, driving home their campaign to oust him.

An internal U.N. document seen by Reuters on Tuesday said Gbagbo had surrendered but a U.N. official, on condition of anonymity, said later that Gbagbo had not yet done so but had suggested he wanted to, and had requested U.N. protection.

France said it expected a swift exit by Gbagbo.

"We are on the brink of convincing him to leave power," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told parliament in Paris on Tuesday.

Juppe said the negotiations were under way between Gbagbo's close collaborators, the UN and French ambassador to Ivory Coast, Jean-Marc Simon.

Gbagbo government spokesman Ahoua Don Mello, who was taking part in the negotiations, said the parties were still in talks.

"Some points are still being discussed. Nothing has been signed, Gbagbo has not signed anything," Don Mello told Reuters.

The U.N. document said fighting in Abidjan and elsewhere in the country had stopped on Tuesday, and that Ivorian generals had asked the U.N. peacekeeper force to protect pro-Gbagbo soldiers and take possession of all their weapons.