ABIDJAN—LAURENT Gbagbo faces growing confrontation with foreign peacekeepers as the United Nations, yesterday, rejected his demand that they leave Ivory Coast, in the tense aftermath of an election he insists he won and the outside world says he lost.

The political standoff has forced nearly 4,000 citizens of northwest Ivory Coast to flee to neighbouring countries, prompting fears of regional insecurity, according to the United Nations.

Britain’s Foreign Office, yesterday, urged British citizens to leave the country “due to the threat of widespread instability and violence in Abidjan and other major cities.”

A top Gbagbo aide said late Saturday he would never step down and accused Western powers of attempting a “recolonisation” ofIvory Coast, by installing their “puppet.”

Election commission results showed Ouattara won by some eight percent. But Gbagbo claims victory with backing from the Constitutional Council, headed by an ally, which erased nearly half a million votes in Ouattara strongholds, alleging fraud.

The United Nations, former colonial power France, the United States, the European Union, the African Union and West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, have all urged Gbagbo to admit defeat and accept an offer of exile.

Gbagbo aide Pascal Affi N’Guessan told Reuters in an interview: “That is unimaginable. Everyone involved in this crisis needs to exclude this hypothesis of Gbagbo leaving from their schemes.” Ouattara has said he is only willing to talk to Gbagbo if he steps aside.

Gbagbo’s Young Patriot supporters were due to a hold a rally close to Abidjan airport, yesterday. Their leader Ble Goude, who is also Gbagbo’s youth minister, has called on them to “liberate” Ivory Coast and defend its sovereignty. Gbagbo’s government said on state TV it wanted the UN  peacekeeping and French forces out of the country, accusing them of interfering in Ivory Coast’s internal affairs, after the UN envoy recognised Ouattara.. The renewed refugee flow has also put neighbouring Liberia and Guinea on high alert.

“In my village the majority voted massively for President Laurent Gbagbo, and (the New Forces soldiers) threatened us because of that. They came to our houses and started to harass us, to mistreat us,” said Jean_Jacques Issignate, 19, from Nyale, an Ivorian village along the Guinea border. “We fled to the forest … I spent one week in the forest.”
Provisional results from a November presidential run off intended to end more than 10 years of civil war showed Ouattara as the winner with a nearly eight_point margin.

Earlier this month, the nation’s highest court, headed by an ally of Gbagbo, cancelled thousands of votes from the north – Ouattara’s stronghold and declared Gbagbo the winner with 51 percent of the vote.

Both candidates have said they won and set up parallel governments in the nation’s main city, Abidjan, where violence between their supporters has killed dozens since results were announced.

Ouattara has unanimous international support. He urged his supporters to forcefully “liberate” the country’s national television station and parliament building, sparking a standoff with soldiers loyal to Gbagbo.

The UN Security Council and other world bodies called for Gbagbo to step down, with many world leaders saying Ouattara won.

Red Cross representatives in Guinea say many more have been separated from their families.

“They’re spread out all over. There are others who are in the bush, there are others who we haven’t seen, there are small children who have come here without their brothers, there are mothers who are still in the bush, there are fathers who fled to Liberia,” said Mayoh Bohmimy, who is managing a UN_sponsored camp for displaced Ivorians in Bossou, a Guinean village near the Liberian border. Clutching silver pots and pans, and hoisting plastic buckets filled with clothes and blankets on their heads, Ivorians such as Jean_Jacques fled without food and water for days.