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France grounds Cote d'Ivoire leader Gbagbo's plane

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-12-27 10:00
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PARIS - A plane belonging to Cote d'Ivoire leader Laurent Gbagbo has been grounded at the Franco-Swiss Basel/Mulhouse airport, the French foreign ministry said on Sunday, as part of measures to put pressure on him to step down.

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"Cote d'Ivoire's legitimate authorities have asked us to ground the aircraft and it is precisely what we have done," French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told Reuters.

World powers and African states have heaped political and financial pressure on Gbagbo, the incumbent president, to relinquish power after a Nov 28 vote in which electoral commission results showed he lost to Alassane Ouattara.

West African heads of state threatened on Friday to use force to oust Gbagbo after a violent stand-off over the vote threatened to push Cote d'Ivoire, the world's top cocoa producer, back into civil war.