Fighting ends Ivory Coast truce

French troops will not get involved in fighting

Fighting has broken out in three towns along the frontline in Ivory Coast, ending a six-week-old truce between the government and rebels.

The BBC's West Africa correspondent Paul Welsh says the army has gone into battle with mercenaries and new helicopter gunships, which it brought into the country during the ceasefire period.

The army has launched ground attacks on rebel positions near the western town of Vavoua.

Further west, residents report shooting in Man, an important centre for the cocoa industry.

And the town of Danane, near the Liberian border, has been attacked by a new rebel group.

Rebels control the largely Muslim north, while the mainly Christian south remains in government hands.

Analysts fear that renewed conflict in Ivory Coast could suck in neighbouring countries, as hundreds of thousands of African expatriates live and work there.

Many have already left, after attacks on foreigners in government-held areas.

'English-speakers'

French troops, monitoring the truce, reported two columns of loyalist troops including mercenaries marching towards rebel positions.

An Ivorian army spokesman said their advance on Vavoua was a response to rebel attacks near Man on Wednesday.

But the French said they had seen no evidence to support the army claims.

"I was attacked this morning. Armoured vehicles went through the French roadblock and started shooting at us with heavy weaponry," rebel Sergeant Zacharias Kone told Reuters news agency by satellite phone from Vavoua.

President Gbagbo says the rebels must lay down their arms

"I'm defending myself."

French army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Ange-Antoine Leiccia told the French news agency, AFP, that fighting had broken out near Vavoua at 1300 GMT after an advance by about 300 loyalist troops.

"The two columns are about half an hour apart. The first is made up of roughly 150 to 200 men in 15 trucks and tanks," he said.

"They are mostly English-speaking black soldiers and whites, so clearly we are dealing with mercenaries," he added.

"The second column consists of Ivorian troops, about 100 of them."

Major Deli Gaspard of the Movement for Justice and Peace, a group linked to former army ruler Robert Guei, says his forces attacked Danane to avenge General Guei's death.

General Guei came from Danane. He was killed in the early days of the uprising by government troops but the main Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI) denied any connection with him.

Heavy shooting erupted in Man at about 1400 GMT, one resident told Reuters.

"There is a lot of gunfire coming from the gendarmerie headquarters... It is hard to say who is responsible." 'Exceptional case'

Meanwhile, the main opposition leader, Alassane Ouattara, has left Ivory Coast after spending two months sheltering at the French ambassador's residence in Abidjan.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told journalists he had gone to Gabon.

The rebels complain of discrimination against Muslims

Ivorian army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jules Yao Yao denied that the advance would jeopardise the ceasefire or the Lome peace talks.

"The western front is an exceptional case because Sergeant (Zacharias) Kone (the leader of the rebels in Vavoua) does not respect the ceasefire," he said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Leiccia said that there was "no question" of the French troops enforcing the truce - they were monitors and no more.

Religious divide

Peace talks in the Togolese capital, Lome, have become bogged down over political differences.

Hundreds were killed in fighting before the truce was signed and hundreds of thousands fled their homes.

Mr Ouattara has gone into exile before

The rebels, who began their uprising on 19 September, insist that President Laurent Gbagbo must step down and want fresh elections to be held, supervised by international monitors.

Mr Gbagbo says he was democratically elected and so should serve his full term in office.

He has offered to hold a referendum on changing the constitution - another rebel demand - but this was dismissed.

Both the rebels and Mr Ouattara accuse the government of discriminating against northern Muslims in favour of southern Christians.