Forces loyal to Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara launch heavy attack on bunker where Laurent Gbagbo defies efforts to force him to cede power

Forces loyal to Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara launched a heavy attack on Wednesday on the bunker where Laurent Gbagbo was defying efforts to force him to cede power, as negotiations to end the fight have reportedly failed.

"The fighting is terrible here, the explosions are so heavy my building is shaking," Alfred Kouassi, who lives near Gbagbo's residence in the commercial capital Abidjan, told Reuters. "We can hear automatic gunfire and also the thud of heavy weapons. There's shooting all over the place. Cars are speeding in all directions and so are the fighters," he said.

The French military confirmed that fighting was under way around Gbagbo's residence, but said that French troops in the city were not involved.

NEGOTIATIONS FAILED
The fighting resumed for a third day after negotiations led by the United Nations and France to secure Gbagbo's departure failed, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said. "The negotiations which were carried out for hours yesterday between the entourage of Laurent Gbagbo and Ivorian authorities have failed because of Gbagbo's intransigence," Juppe told parliament in Paris.

He had earlier said Gbagbo had "no future" and that it was "absurd" for him to hang on.

"If Gbagbo has refused to sign the documents they (UN and France) presented to him yesterday, it is because they proposed something that had no legal and judicial basis," Gbagbo's spokesman Ahoua Don Mello told Reuters on Wednesday.

A defiant Gbagbo had earlier denied reports he was ready to surrender after a fierce assault by forces loyal to Ouattara, whose victory in November's presidential election Gbagbo has refused to accept. "We are not at the negotiating stage. And my departure from where? To go where?" Gbagbo told French radio RFI on Wednesday.

GBAGBO STILL DISCUSSING POSSIBLE SURRENDER
Yet, UN peacekeeping department spokesman Nick Birnback said that Gbagbo is still in contact with international representatives about a possible surrender even though his residence is under attack. "Discussions continue with the UN using its good offices to the fullest extent possible," UN peacekeeping department spokesman Nick Birnback told AFP.
  
The United Nations said on Tuesday that three of Gbagbo's senior generals had asked for talks on a ceasefire and conditions for the incumbent leader to give up.
  
Diplomatic sources said various contacts with Gbagbo's representatives were held during the day but that the rogue leader's camp did not follow up on the offers made.

The former colonial power in Ivory Coast, France has taken a leading role in talks to persuade Gbagbo to hand over to rival Ouattara and end a four-month standoff over a contested election in November which UN-certified results say Ouattara won.

CIVILIANS HUNT FOR FOOD, WATER
Residents however said militias close to Gbagbo and his presidential guard were putting up a stiff resistance, even as most soldiers from the regular army had heeded a call to lay down their arms.

Despite the fighting, desperate civilians in the north of the city ventured outside to hunt for water and food. "We haven't slept, we haven't eaten, we've had nothing to drink. We are all going to die," said 17-year-old Mariam.

A defiant Gbagbo had earlier denied reports he was ready to surrender after a fierce assault by forces loyal to Ouattara, whose victory in November's presidential election Gbagbo has refused to accept.

ICC PROSECUTOR SEEKS MASSACRES PROBE
Meanwhile, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, plans to launch a formal probe into alleged mass killings in Ivory Coast.

According to a statement issued Wednesday, Moreno-Ocampo's office was particularly concerned about reported massacres in the west of the wartorn country. "The office continues to collect information on alleged crimes committed there by different parties to the conflict," it said.

The next step will be for the prosecutor to use his independent power to request authorization from the court to initiate an investigation, the statement added.

It noted that while Ivory Coast did not sign the Rome Statute setting up the ICC both Gbagbo, whose refusal to step down after presidential elections triggered the current wave of fighting, and Ouattara recognized internationally as his successor, had accepted the court's jurisdiction.

However if a state party of the Rome Statute refers Ivory Coast to the ICC prosecutor "he can proceed faster with an investigation and start to prepare a request for an arrest warrant for those most responsible for crimes in Ivory Coast," it said.