Forces loyal to Ivory Coast's internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara have pulled back from a final assault on strongman Laurent Gbagbo's bunker after meeting fierce resistance from his army as foreign journalists and diplomats try to flee Abidjan.
After a day of heavy fighting at Gbagbo's residence in Abidjan, where the strongman is holed up, refusing to surrender and cede power to his rival, Ouattara's troops have drawn back, a resident told AFP.
"There has been a pause in the fighting," between Gbagbo's troops and Ouattara's Republican Forces Army, he told AFP after "several hours of sustained heavy weapons fire."
"The Republican Forces arrived up to 150 metres from the gate. They had to pull back," he added.
"The offensive launched by the Ouattara's troops met with strong resistance from Gbagbo's last loyal men", a French government source told AFP.
"There are still some mortars and tanks in the presidential compound, the offensive was suspended for a few hours," the source said.
Reporters, diplomats seeking help in Abidjan
Many foreign journalists and diplomats from Japan, Israel and India on Wednesday sought US help to flee a besieged neighborhood in Ivory Coast's capital Abidjan, a US official said.
William Fitzgerald, the deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told AFP that around 20 journalists trapped in the Novotel hotel in the area "have reached out to us, and a number of other missions that are located in the Cocody neighborhood are reaching out to us."
He said the people in the missions seeking help to escape the besieged Cocody neighborhood were the Japanese ambassador, the Israeli chief of mission and the Indian ambassador.
Fitzgerald said the US embassy relayed their requests to the UN and French forces deployed in the Ivory Coast to escort out of the neighborhood.
Ouattara's camp earlier said they were going to storm the bunker and forcibly remove Gbagbo to end his decade-long rule of the world's number one cocoa producer after losing November elections.
"We are going to take Laurent Gbagbo out of his hole and hand him over to the president of the republic," said Sidiki Konate, spokesman for the pro-Ouattara forces.
"We are going to his residence to fetch him and put an end to this comedy... This charade must end because the country is collapsing," he said.
In France a government source said Ouattara forces had launched a final assault after negotiations to persuade Gbagbo to give up power failed.
"Gbagbo was still refusing to sign a document recognising Ouattara's victory ... and Ouattara concluded that he was not being honest," the source said.
"He therefore decided to intervene militarily to try to resolve the problem, to capture Gbagbo alive."
Gbagbo's camp condemned the move as an "assassination attempt."
UN peacekeeping department spokesman Nick Birnback told AFP Gbagbo remained in contact with international representatives.
"Discussions continue with the UN using its good offices to the fullest extent possible," he said.
After calling for a ceasefire and retreating to the bunker on Tuesday with his wife Simone and a few others, Gbagbo insisted in a radio interview late on Tuesday he would not accept he had lost the vote.
"I do not recognise the victory of Ouattara... Why would you want me to sign this?" Gbagbo told France's LCI news channel, referring to the document in which France and the United Nations urge him to quit.
Gbagbo also said that while he did not regard himself as a "martyr", he was prepared to die. "If death comes, it comes," he said.
Concern grew at claims of massacres over the past week when Ouattara's army mounted a lightning offensive into areas held by Gbagbo forces, capturing several towns on the way to the main city, Abidjan.
The United Nations said it believed "several hundred civilians" were killed in the western town of Duekoue and one mass grave had almost 200 bodies.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, announced he was collecting information on the allegations and planned a formal investigation.
Several hundred people have been killed in violence linked to the months-long presidential standoff, while up to a million had fled their homes to escape clashes, according to UN agencies.
The United Nations and International Red Cross called for urgent access to conflict victims, saying the humanitarian situation was worsening with ongoing fighting and looting.
In Abidjan aid workers were unable to reach the wounded because of insecurity while people were stuck in their homes with food and water running short.
"Aid workers and especially the Red Cross staff who are fetching the wounded must be able to do so without coming under fire, it's extremely serious, hospitals are overwhelmed, there is a shortage of medicine," OCHA spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told AFP.
"There are armed rebel groups who don't know on which side they are, who are looting not only private houses but also some stocks of humanitarian agencies, that's unacceptable. We really need protection to carry out our work."
The Elders group of eminent world leaders, including Nobel laureates Desmond Tutu and Kofi Annan, said both warring parties must be accountable for killings, with Gbagbo bearing "primary responsibility for the violence, which was sparked by his refusal to accept the election results and step down."
The European Union meanwhile imposed new sanctions on Gbagbo, banning the purchase of bonds from his "illegitimate government."
However Gbagbo still retains the support of Angola, which said on Wednesday it recognises him as the constitutionally elected president.
Gbagbo was elected in 2000 and postponed polls due in 2005 several times before allowing them to go ahead last year, only to reject the result issued by the election authority and backed by the United Nations.
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