20110116
reuters

ABIDJAN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union on Saturday increased the pressure on Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo to step down, freezing assets of the West African country's cocoa-exporting ports, its state oil firm and three banks.

The latest move in international efforts to persuade Gbagbo to quit after an election he is widely held to have lost, the EU announced a sanctions list that included state refiner SIR, the country's rubber sector body, energy utility SOGEPE and national broadcaster RTI.

Gbagbo's camp brushed off the tighter sanctions and said he still had access to accounts at West Africa's central bank, even though regional leaders recognise his rival Alassane Ouattara as the legitimate leader of the world's top cocoa grower.

"Westerners often make this mistake. The world does not stop at Europe, it does not stop at America," Gbagbo's government spokesman Ahoua Don Mello said. "Africa has evolved. We can dispense with France, we can go elsewhere," he added, referring to Ivory Coast's former colonial ruler.

The United Nations human rights office said at least 247 people have been killed in violence in Ivory Coast since the disputed presidential election on November 28, which risks sending the country back into civil war.

The EU's Official Journal said the firms and utilities were "helping to fund the illegitimate government" of Gbagbo.

The EU first imposed sanctions on Gbagbo and his backers in December after the election that world powers and African neighbours say Ouattara won. Gbagbo cites a Constitutional Council ruling that the results were rigged against him.

Broadcaster RTI was guilty of "public incitement to hatred and violence through participation in disinformation campaigns in connection with the 2010 presidential election", the EU Journal said.