Ivory Coast France warns nationals to go away   by Zahid Hussain http://www.thenewsarena.com/

Government spokesman Francois Baroin said the gauge was "precautionary". There are roughly 15,000 French citizens in the West African country.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned it could slip into civil war and that incumbent Laurent Gbagbo was trying to expel peacekeepers.

The international population recognizes his rival Alassane Ouattara as victor.

Mr Gbagbo says the poll, meant to merge the country split by the 2002 war, was rigged in insurgent areas. The Constitutional Council said he had won.

"We ask those who can to leave Ivory Coast provisionally until the situation normalises," Mr Baroin said.

journalists say there are fears that 10,000 UN personnel and other foreigners could be targeted as tensions augment.

Mr Ouattara and his faction are currently holed up in the Golf Hotel in the main city Abidjan, secluded by 800 peacekeepers.

Mr Gbagbo has said he can leave but a barrier of the hotel remains.

No supplies or medicines are being allowable in.

An ally of Mr Gbagbo has warned the mediators that they could be treated as rebels if they do not leave.

'Critical situation'
On Tuesday, Mr Ban said there was a "real risk" of a come again to civil war.

"I am concerned that this disturbance of life-support supplies for the mission and the Golf Hotel will put our peacekeepers in a critical circumstances in the coming days," he said.

"Facing this direct and intolerable challenge to the authenticity of the United Nations, the world community cannot stand by," he added.

He also exposed that the UN mission to the Ivory Coast (Unoci) had confirmed "mercenaries, counting freelance former combatants from Liberia, have been recruited to target sure groups in the population", and that an arms embargo was being broken.

Meanwhile Mr Gbagbo appeared on state television for the first time since the election to restate his claim to be the country's rightful leader.

He attributed liability for the recent unrest to his "adversary's refusal to submit to the law".

He called for an international "evaluation committee" to examine the election process, but this was discarded by Mr Ouattara.

At least 50 people have been killed in violence connected to the dispute, the UN says.

The election, belated for five years, was hypothetical to reunify the world's largest cocoa creator, which was split among the government-controlled south and rebel-controlled north in a civil war in 2002.