Rebel advance in Ivory Coast raises hopes of Gbagbo exile

Rebels fighting to install the internationally recognised president of Ivory Coast have seized two more towns and advanced into the centre of the country where they now control a crossroads leading to the capital and a major seaport.

Ivory Coast's four-month-long political crisis, caused by incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to leave office, is quickly degenerating into war with the largest city, Abidjan, now in a state of chaos.

In a sign of how bloody the West African state's post-election conflict has become, forces loyal to Mr Gbagbo opened fire on civilians in Abidjan on Monday, killing about ten, United Nations peacekeepers said.

The UN said fighting was still raging in the two towns - Daloa in the central region and Bondoukou in the east - and that some 20,000 people had sought refuge at a Catholic mission in a third city, Duekoue, seized by rebels on Monday.

"Terrified displaced persons have been streaming in, some with gunshot wounds as they cannot receive emergency treatment from the local hospital," said Jacques Seurt, the UN refugee agency's emergency co-ordinator. Captain Leon Alla, defence spokesman for internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara, said the central city of Daloa fell at 1am on Tuesday several hours after Bondoukou.

Their seizure by the rebels suggests the insurgency is spreading. Previously the rebels were contained to the north of Abidjan and west of the country - the world largest producer of cocoa. Highways from Daloa lead south to the port of San Pedro and east to the administrative capital of Yamassoukro. Advisers to Mr Ouattara say that if the fighters take either San Pedro or Yamassoukro, Mr Gbagbo may buckle and accept an offer of exile.

Access to the San Pedro port is considered to be especially important since it can be used to resupply the rebels who do not currently have access to the sea. The Abidjan port is still held by Mr Gbagbo's forces.

Mr Ouattara was declared the winner of 28 November elections, but has been unable to take office as Mr Gbagbo refuses to quit after a decade in power.

In Abidjan, about 240 miles from Daloa, the political stand-off has led to daily fighting where security forces loyal to Mr Gbagbo have used heavy weapons against the population, acts the UN said could be crimes against humanity. The once chic downtown of the city previously styled the Paris of Africa is now a maze of roadblocks manned by armed and hooded youths allied to Mr Gbagbo. Suspected Ouattara supporters are being pulled out of their cars and burned alive or beaten to death with bricks and iron bars.

On Tuesday morning, a photographer saw the blackened body of a man who had been burned to death in the Riviera neighbourhood of Abidjan.The UN later said that pro-Gbagbo youths had put a tyre around his neck and burned him alive.

Most of the 462 confirmed killings were carried out by Mr Gbagbo's forces against supposed Ouattara supporters, Human Rights Watch said. More than one million people have fled the fighting, the UN said, most from Abidjan where a bloody final battle for the presidency is expected to take place.