20110123
reuters

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo will find ways to sidestep economic sanctions aimed at removing him from power, his government said on Sunday after West African leaders moved to sever his funds from the regional central bank.

Spokesman Ahoua Don Mello, who also called threats of regional military intervention a "bluff", said the former French colony's new partners in Asia, Latin America and Africa would help it find alternative ways to deposit and access funds in order to maintain trade, tax collection and salary payments.

Gbagbo is locked in a power struggle with rival Alassane Ouattara, who was declared winner of a November 28 election by United Nations-certified results before they were overturned by a pro-Gbagbo legal body, which alleged fraud.

In the wake of European Union sanctions on Gbagbo's camp and state institutions supporting him, West African leaders tightened the screws on Saturday by removing the head of the regional central bank, a Gbagbo ally who had safeguarded his access to funds.

"Isolation cannot work ... Those who think that Ivory Coast will be isolated are those who think that (we) have no choice but to operate with them," Don Mello said.

Don Mello said that there was no shortage of ships, and vessels from Asia and elsewhere would replace the European-registered ones now banned from shipping cocoa from Ivory Coast, the world's top grower.