Ivory Coast in tense standoff

ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast loyal to rival leader Alassane Ouattara Laurent Gbagbo and fighters held their respective positions in Abidjan on Sunday, a day that saw less fighting than the previous three.

After three days of pitched battles, Reuters correspondents and witnesses from the main city in the world top cocoa-producing nations has been more calm but tense, with sporadic gunfire and explosions heard in some neighborhoods.

Forces loyal to Ouattara, who the results certified by the UN show won a November 28 presidential election, fighting to force the removal of Gbagbo, who refuses to resign. The month of post-election unrest has killed more than 1,000 country and revived 2002-3 of the Civil War.

"There has been no fighting here. We are awaiting the resumption of hostilities at any time and we are ready to defend ourselves and keep control of Abidjan by all means," an agent of pro-Gbagbo at the presidential palace told Reuters.

"Taking Abidjan will be difficult, no one should think that we will easily give up our positions. We are determined," he said.

A Western diplomat said that an attack was planned on Saturday the presidential residence, but it did not occur, probably because the human shield of the Gbagbo youth group.

The diplomat said that the explosions came from the state television station RTI, which Gbagbo's forces said they had resumed on Friday.

Television broadcast virulent anti-UN, anti-American and anti-French messages and calls Gbagbo's supporters to join the fight, but the French journalists based Without Borders said RTI would be the dissemination of a villa or a mobile truck in Abidjan because its broadcast center is severely damaged.

Interior Minister Emile Guirielou and the head of Gbagbo youth violence wing Charles Ble Goude called on young people to take to the streets to help fight the rebels, and "mercenaries" from the United Nations and France to help them.