A firebrand youth leader loyal to Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo urged militants on Tuesday to lay siege to a French military base as the government slapped a ban on demonstrations after two days of violence.
Hundreds of youths hurled stones at the base in the economic capital Abidjan but were repulsed as French and Ivorian security forces fired tear gas grenades at them.
The call by Charles Ble Goude, leader of the militant "Young Patriots," came as rebels accused Gbagbo of orchestrating an attempted attack on their stronghold and creating chaos to undermine a shaky French-brokered peace deal.
Two days of upheaval have raised the specter of a return to battle despite the formal end to a civil war that erupted last year and split the world's top cocoa grower into a rebel-held north and government-held south.
The protests outside the French base follow a weekend demand by a renegade group of pro-Gbagbo army officers that French troops quit a ceasefire line across the centre of the western African nation and that the country's top brass quit.
Three top generals offered their resignations on Tuesday but Gbagbo declined the offer.
A special adviser to Gbagbo said the offers were a clear sign the army was frustrated with its leaders, but it was up to Gbagbo to decide if and when they should be replaced.
Civil war in the former French colony has inflamed anti-French sentiment as both sides accuse 4,000 French troops on the ground of supporting their enemies.
France ruled out withdrawing its troops, who are keeping the peace under a UN mandate. Asked whether such a move was planned, a foreign ministry spokesman in Paris told a news conference: "Absolutely not."
Ble Goude called on Ivorians to descend on the base again yesterday, but he warned them against attacking French citizens.
"We did not say we would burn [the base]. We did not say we would kill French soldiers. We are going there to tell the French to get off the front line," he said at a meeting.
The French embassy said several of its citizens had been targeted by the protesters on Tuesday, and some vehicles were badly damaged. Several foreign embassies warned their nationals to be cautious when moving around the city.
A government statement read out on state TV on Tuesday evening said both the national and international community could rely on the Ivorian police to protect them.
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