ABIDJAN (AFP) - French military reinforcements deployed in Ivory Coast's economic capital Abidjan following a night of anti-French rampages and the deaths of nine of their compatriots in an airstrike.
French ministers said the situation was tense but under control and there were no immediate plans to evacuate its 14,000 nationals from the west African country despite mob violence targeting foreigners, including the looting and torching of businesses and homes.
But Paris, backed by the European Union and African Union, toughened its stance towards President Laurent Gbagbo, after his partisans called people out into the streets in defiance of French forces.
France also moved to quell speculation, fired by Gbagbo's ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), that its decision to send in an additional 700 troops was an attempt to destabilize the former west African French colony.
"We want only to preserve constitutional legality and to secure the country. Nothing else. To secure it, not to destabilize it," said Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.
An Ivorian government air strike on Saturday killed nine French troops and a US civilian in the central rebel stronghold of Bouake.
The attack was "deliberate," Barnier said Sunday.
In an immediate riposte, French President Jacques Chirac ordered the destruction of two Ivorian jets in the capital Yamoussoukro as well as at least three attack helicopters, effectively eliminating the Ivorian air force.
Chirac said the planes had been violating the country's ceasefire in raids on the rebel-held north.
Sunday's deployment of additional French troops followed a night of fierce clashes between the French military and thousands of Gbagbo partisans advancing on Abidjan's international airport to wrest it from French hands.
At least three people were killed in the clashes, which involved a French 20 mm cannon, according to state radio. The French military has vigorously denied claims from the Gbagbo government that 30 people were shot dead.
Anti-French violence erupted in Abidjan with young "patriots" launching a door-to-door hunt for Westerners in upmarket Abidjan neighborhoods, and four French schools were sacked or torched.
Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said late Sunday the situation in Ivory Coast was "under control but remains tense, we must not deny it."
French officials warned the Ivorian president he would be held accountable for continuing violence.
"President Gbagbo bears a heavy and personal responsibility in all of this affair," said Barnier, adding that implementing the 2003 peace pact signed in Marcoussis, France, was "the only way to avoid violence" in the Ivory Coast.
The crisis is the worst to hit Franco-Ivorian relations since independence in 1960, leading France to end its policy of neutrality towards the country.
Paris has moved to boost its presence there to 5,300 troops, including the 4,000-strong Unicorn force, which along with 6,000 UN peacekeepers patrols a buffer zone separating the rebel-held north from the government-held south.
In Abidjan, French interests were being protected by 600 men at the base of the 43rd marine infantry battalion near the airport, which French troops closed to civilian flights and placed under their control.
Gbagbo supporters have repeatedly accused the French peacekeepers of siding with the rebel New Forces, who retain control of the north even as it is increasingly cut off from the rest of the country.
The speaker of the Ivorian parliament Mamadou Koulibaly, a Gbagbo loyalist, warned France faced a "long, hard war" against the "patriots" in Ivory Coast.
"Vietnam will be nothing compared with what we are going to do here," he said. "Ivorian authorities consider themselves now to be rebels against the French power which Jacques Chirac is trying to install."
FPI leader Pascal Affi N'Guessan also took to the airwaves urging people to "descend massively into the streets... to prevent, by any means, the free movement of any foreign force."
The African Union on Sunday mandated South African President Thabo Mbeki to launch an "urgent mission" in coming days to resolve the Ivorian crisis.
The grouping on Saturday sharply rebuked the Ivory Coast government for an escalation that "clearly contradicts the process of national reconciliation."
The UN Security Council, which held emergency talks at France's request, will meet on Tuesday to discuss "new measures" including an arms embargo to be imposed against Ivory Coast.
11/07/2004 - 21:16 GMT - AFP