Pressure grows on defeated Gbagbo to resign

The United Nations' top envoy in Ivory Coast told the world body there was "only one winner" of the recent presidential election - and it was not the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.

Speaking via a video link from Abidjan, Choi Young-jin urged the UN to take action against Mr Gbagbo to safeguard the result of the vote as a regional bloc of 15 countries in West Africa suspended Ivory Coast's membership and warned Mr Gbagbo to yield power immediately to opposition leader Alassane Ouattara.

The continuing uncertainty over what will happen next in Ivory Coast led hundreds of people to flee the country and the UN also began evacuating 500 staff.

The UN has said that Mr Gbagbo's opponent, Alassane Ouattara, won the election but Mr Gbagbo turned his back on international opinion defiantly went ahead yesterday with the naming of his cabinet at a ceremony in the presidential palace.

Across town in an ageing hotel, the man considered by the UN, US and other regional powers to be the rightful winner of the race held his own cabinet meeting, minus the pomp.

Mr Ouattara, a soft-spoken economist who spent years at the International Monetary Fund, is being waited on by the hotel's staff and is guarded by UN peacekeepers who have rolled out more than a mile of coiled razor wire to surround the Golf Hotel.

But his prime minister told foreign diplomats they needed further military reinforcements because they did not feel safe.

It is unclear what the international community can do if Mr Gbagbo refuses to step down. If he does not go voluntarily, removing him would require a military intervention since he appears to have the backing of his own army.

He also controls the apparatus of state, including access to the glass-walled palace which is the seat of government.

In his briefing to the UN Security Council, Mr Choi recalled how the country's electoral commission last week declared Mr Ouattara the winner of the election with 54% of the vote.

But that result was immediately overturned by the constitutional council, headed by a close adviser to Mr Gbagbo, who threw out the votes from Mr Ouattara's strongholds.

Although the constitution gives the council the final say over the vote, Mr Gbagbo signed an accord following the country's civil war agreeing that the UN would certify the results.

Since the UN declared Mr Ouattara the winner, Mr Gbagbo's camp has refused to accept its authority over the vote.

US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said there was a danger that the security council would look impotent if it could not agree to support the mandate it gave Mr Choi.

Once considered an African success stories, Ivory Coast's economy was destroyed by the civil war that broke out in 2002.

Mr Gbagbo, who was already president when the war broke out, failed to hold elections in 2005 when his term expired because armed rebels still controlled the northern half of the country.

The country remained in political deadlock with repeated outbursts of fighting until 2007, when a deal was signed by all the parties paving the way for the election.

In the three years that followed, the ballot was rescheduled at least six times, with Mr Gbagbo complaining over technicalities including how many Ivorian parents a person needed to have to be allowed to vote and the make-up of the electoral commission.

At a televised debate on the eve of last weekend's election, the country appeared ready to turn a page as Mr Gbagbo shook Mr Ouattara's hand and promised to abide by the results of the electoral commission.

The stand-off has many worried that Ivory Coast may return to war. For several nights, residents in pro-Ouattara neighbourhoods say they heard sporadic shooting and at least 20 people have been shot dead since the contested election, according to Amnesty International.