Britain would back U.N. military intervention in Ivory Coast

The Ivory Coast standoff took on greater international significance Friday, with British Foreign Secretary William Hague saying his government would support U.N.-sanctioned military intervention.

Also, France renewed its call for its citizens to leave Ivory Coast, as fears grow that tensions will devolve into civil war and even genocide.

World leaders have urged self-declared President Laurent Gbagbo to cede power to Alassane Ouattara, considered by the U.N. and international leaders as the rightful winner of last month's poll. Gbagbo has refused to step down.

The stand-off has left more than 170 people dead and led the World Bank to freeze aid of more than $800 million. The West African regional central bank also cut off financing to Gbagbo, potentially worsening a cash crunch that could make it hard for him to pay wages of civil servants and soldiers who back him.

U.N. officials fear ethnic bloodshed on a massive scale if civil war re-starts in Ivory Coast.

The U.N. on Friday warned Gbagbo supporters that they would reignite a civil war if they went ahead with a threatened attack on the hotel in Abidjan where his rival is based. A pro-Gbagbo youth leader has said that the backers of Ouattara had until Saturday to "pack up their bags."

A U.N. spokesman said the secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, was alarmed by the comments and believed that an attack could reignite civil war.

France last week warned of such a danger and said its citizens should leave the country. The United States and United Kingdom also have warned their citizens of possible violence.

British officials have said their country would support the use of U.N-sanctioned military force to resolve the situation.

Hague stressed that Britain was not about to deploy troops but rather was taking a number of other diplomatic measures to bring an end to the political stand-off, including sending a military liaison officer to the country, the U.K. Press Association reported.

Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today program if Britain would support military intervention in Ivory Coast, Hague replied: "Yes, in principle. They would be well advised to seek the authority of the United Nations to do that and we would be supportive of that at the U.N."

But he added: "We are a long way here from discussing British forces being deployed. We have deployed a military liaison officer to the country to work on various contingencies with the French, but I'm not raising the possibility today of British forces being deployed."