EU agrees travel ban on Ivory Coast's Gbagbo

Brussels, 21 Dec – (ANA) – The European Union has agreed to impose a travel ban on Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo for failing to step down after a presidential election the outside world says he lost.

Separately, rival presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara urged the United Nations to toughen its peacekeeping mandate to help quell a violent power struggle that has already claimed over 50 lives and prompted fears of a return to civil war.

The travel ban will affect Gbagbo's wife and 17 of his close allies.

"We expect the ban to be adopted by Wednesday and come into effect on Thursday, effective immediately," European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told reporters in Brussels, adding that governments were also discussing a freeze on assets.

Washington has threatened similar punitive measures after the November 28 poll intended to heal scars in a country ripped apart by a 2002-2003 civil war but which has only accentuated the divide between the Gbagbo-held south and rebel-held north. (ANA)

FA/ANA/21 December 2010------