African leaders hold crisis talks with Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo

African leaders returned Monday to the Ivory Coast in a second attempt in less than a week to hold crisis talks with the country's rival presidents, amid reports of atrocities and mass graves.

The presidents of Benin, Sierra Leone and Cape Verde also visited last week without result, and this time they were being joined by Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga. .

The U.N., African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have all recognized former prime minister Alassane Ouattara as the newly-elected president after the country's November election, but incumbent Laurent Gbagbo refuses to cede power. Gbagbo says he intends to remain in power and accuses foreign governments of plotting a coup against him.

Gbagbo has held power with the backing of the army, and human rights groups accuse his security forces of killing hundreds of political opponents.

The country's political crisis has sent thousands of refugees into Liberia and seen France, Germany and the US, among others, recall their citizens for fear of a civil war outbreak.

Britain last week said it would support U.N.-sanctioned military intervention in the country. The West African alliance says it is considering military force to remove Gbagbo.

Prospects of resolving the dispute appear dim, with the two sides failing to agree even on what their talks are about.

West African leaders say they are in Abidjan to ensure Gbagbo steps down, and that his resignation is non-negotiable. But Gbagbo's aides say the meeting is about negotiation.

"They are not coming to negotiate the departure of President Gbagbo," Voice of America quoted Ambassador Yao Gnamien, a special advisor to Gbagbo, as saying. "They are coming to Cote D'Ivoire just for a process of negotiations so that we can find a peaceful solution to the crisis."

Gbagbo says  Ouattara should not expect foreign troops to help him and is calling for the departure of U.N. peacekeepers who are guarding a hotel on the outskirts of Abidjan where Ouattara is holed up.

Ouattara has again called on the international criminal court in The Hague to send officials to Ivory Coast to investigate the violence instigated by Gbagbo's troops.

The U.N. believes there may be two mass graves, one of which contains at least 80 bodies, that investigators have been prevented from accessing, The Guardian reported.