IVORY COAST French gather forces, insist they do not intend to oust president

About 14,000 French residents live in the west African nation.
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) -- French armored vehicles took up positions near the home of Ivory Coast's president today, and thousands of his supporters marched on the site, fearing an attempt to oust him as French forces clamped down on violence in the former West African colony.
Some 50 armored vehicles were moved around the home of President Laurent Gbagbo in Ivory Coast's commercial capital, Abidjan, said presidential spokesman Desire Tagro.
"Their presence here is scaring people. They're crying and they think that President Gbagbo is going to be overthrown," Tagro told The Associated Press by telephone.
The French denied targeting Gbagbo's home, saying the forces were only securing a temporary base at a nearby hotel for foreign evacuations.
"They have not surrounded Gbagbo's residence. I formally deny that," French Embassy spokesman Francois Guenon said. "It is not a question of ousting him, that is very clear."
How it started
French forces have moved to take control of Abidjan after chaos erupted in this west African nation on Saturday. The mayhem began when Ivorian warplanes launched a surprise airstrike that killed nine French peacekeepers and an American civilian aid worker in the north, held by rebels since a 2002 civil war divided the country. The government later called the bombing a mistake.
France hit back within hours, wiping out Ivory Coast's newly built-up air force -- two Russian-made Sukhoi jet fighters and at least three helicopter gunships -- on the ground.
Street-level violence erupted, with machete-wielding mobs seeking to exact revenge on French citizens. With armored vehicles and helicopter gunships deployed, France used tear gas and concussion grenades to quell the mobs.
Near Gbagbo's home today, French armored vehicles were firing warning shots to hold back crowds of thousands trying to block the road, said a worker at the hotel, the Hotel Ivoire, reached by telephone. The worker refused to give his name.
Hard-liners have called for loyalists to form a "human shield" around Gbagbo's home, fearing an overthrow attempt.
France said it was not intervening to destabilize the country or take sides in the country's civil war, while Gbagbo appealed for calm.
"I implore, I implore the population to stay calm ... and I ask all demonstrators to go back to their homes," the Ivorian leader said.
'Terrified'
About 14,000 French citizens live in Ivory Coast. In Abidjan, they've stayed out of sight.
"We are all terrified, and try to reassure each other," one French resident said by telephone. "We have been told by the embassy to stay at home. ... It is a difficult situation to live through."
In Paris, French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie rejected accounts by some Ivory Coast officials that Saturday's bombing was a mistake, saying there was "no reason" for warplanes to have "missed their targets" Saturday.
The defense minister called a reopening of peace talks for Ivory Coast "indispensable."
African Union leaders called an emergency session for today on Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer and for decades the most prosperous and peaceful nation in West Africa.
A 1999 coup ended Ivory Coast's reputation for stability, and a 2000 uprising by Gbagbo's supporters installed him as president amid an aborted vote count in the first post-coup presidential elections.
Seeking a solution
In South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki was consulting with west African leaders ahead of an emergency trip to Ivory Coast, a foreign affairs spokesman said.
"President Mbeki has been requested by the African Union to assist in finding a political solution and will be heading to that country soon," Ronnie Mamoepa said. "For now he is consulting with west African leaders before he departs."
The African Union said Sunday it would send Mbeki to press Ivory Coast to find a political solution to end renewed fighting with rebels in the west and north.
AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare condemned the attacks by government forces on the locations in the north of Ivory Coast, including those that hit the French forces.
The slain French troops were among 4,000 French peacekeepers and 6,000 U.N. troops in Ivory Coast who serve as a buffer between the rebel-held north and loyalist south since civil war broke out in September 2002.