Laurent Gbagbo warns African leaders

[Update: Dealing yet another blow to Laurent Gbagbo, France on Monday promised to recognise an envoy sent by his rival Alassane Ouattara as the country's Paris ambassador.]

A spokesman for the government of Ivory Coast has warned against the use of force to remove Laurent Gbagbo from the presidency, suggesting it could lead to a war in West Africa.

Gbagbo, who has been in power since a disputed election in 2000 and who lost a presidential election runoff on Nov. 28 to rival Alassane Ouattara, has refused to step down despite international pressure and sanctions backed by world leaders.

Ouattara is recognized by the U.N. and international community as the rightful winner, and his refusal to step down prompted the World Bank last week to freeze financing for Ivory Coast.

The country's Independent Electoral Commission named Ouattara, an opposition leader, as the winner of the election, but its Constitutional Council has since invalidated the results and declared that incumbent Gbagbo won.

At a special summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Friday, the presidents of the region again urged Gbagbo to step down. Ecowas said it was prepared to use "legitimate force" against Gbagbo and mentioned the prospect of prosecution in an international court against those responsible for violence in Abidjan.

A diplomatic mission is expected Tuesday in the Ivorian economic capital, composed of the presidents of Benin, Sierra Leone and Cape Verde, to try to convince the outgoing president left office.

A special adviser to embattled Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo told Voice of America on Sunday that it would be a mistake for ECOWAS to use force against Gbagbo.

Ambassador Yao Gnamien said the political crisis in Ivory Coast is an internal problem.

“It is an African crisis [and] we have to solve this crisis with African means," he said. "This is why we think that those African heads of state, they have to come to Cote d’Ivoire to listen to the different parties and then to find the solution. We don’t want the military solution. It will be useless for the West African region.”

Speaking to France's Le Figaro newspaper, Gbagbo said no one can trample on Ivory Coast's laws and Constitution.

Asked by Le Figaro about his spokesman's comment that ECOWAS intervention risked sparking civil war, Gbagbo said: "We are not afraid. It is we who are attacked. It is we who have the right for us. How far those who attack us are ready to go? When I was attacked in 2002, we saw neither France nor the United States, or Ecowas take any punishment. … What is happening today is the continuation of the aggression of 2002."

Gbagbo who survived an attempted coup in 2002 that triggered a civil war.

Meantime, Ouattara has called for a general strike beginning Monday.

And a United Nations refugee agency said over the weekend that  14,000 Ivory Coast residents escaping their country's political instability and violence had fled to eastern Liberia.