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Pro-Ouattara forces take Ivorian capital

Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara seized the capital of Ivory Coast and advanced toward the coastal cities of Abidjan and San Pedro on Wednesday, in a dramatic push aimed at toppling incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo.

The head of presidential claimant Ouattara's rival goverment said Gbagbo had just "hours" to leave power peacefully, after months of negotiations aimed at dislodging him in the aftermath of an election late last year failed.

"The time for dialogue and ceasefires is over... (Gbagbo) has a few hours to leave power peacefully," Guillaume Soro, Ouattara's premier, told French radio RFI.

Resisting pressure from the African Union and the West, Gbagbo has refused to step down since the poll last November, which U.N.-certified results showed he lost to Ouattara by an eight-point margin.

At least 472 people have been killed since the standoff began, according to the United Nations, and a humanitarian crisis is worsening, with a million people displaced from the commercial capital Abidjan alone.

Ivory Coast is the world's largest grower of cocoa, and curbs imposed since the conflict began have paralyzed exports, sending futures prices to 30-year highs.

Cocoa futures hit their lowest point in more than two months on Wednesday as advances by Ouattara's troops raised hopes exports could soon resume.

Pro-Ouattara forces now control areas growing about 600,000 tons of cocoa a year, half of national output.

Residents and military sources in Yamoussoukro, which is officially the nation's capital but functions as little more than a presidential retreat, said pro-Ouattara forces had taken control by the end of the afternoon.

"It is the (pro-Ouattara) Republican Forces that control Yamoussoukro," a military source in Gbagbo's camp said. "(Ouattara's forces) are walking through the city."

Several residents confirmed the information and a pro-Gbagbo military source said they had been given the order to pull back toward Abidjan, 215 km (130 miles) to the southeast.

Clashes were reported in the town but it was not clear what had happened to the Republican Guard, a pro-Gbagbo unit that was expected to put up resistance to any Ouattara push.

Another group of pro-Ouattara fighters, largely made up of former rebels who have controlled the north since a 2002-3 civil war, took control of Soubre, the last main town on the road to the cocoa port of San Pedro.

In Abidjan, pro-Gbagbo youths killed seven civilians when they opened fire in a pro-Ouattara neighbourhood of Abidjan, witnesses said. Former colonial power France, meanwhile, said pro-Gbagbo forces had fired on the French ambassador's convoy in Abidjan.

As the fighting has intensified, about 30,000 Ivorians and West African migrants have been forced to seek refuge in an overcrowded Catholic mission in the town of Duekoue with little or no access to food, water or health facilities, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

Thousands more have sought shelter in public buildings and at least 112,000 have crossed into Liberia to the west.

A Reuters reporter on the road east out of Abidjan said hundreds of cars were clogging roads heading out of the city.

ARMING THE PATRIOTS

Until the push south this week, the worst of the violence had centred on Abidjan, where anti-Gbagbo insurgents, who do not necessarily support Ouattara, have seized parts of town.

A Reuters witness heard heavy weapons fire coming from the area around Agban, the main gendarmerie camp, in the early afternoon. A pro-Gbagbo military source confirmed clashes had taken place but gave no further details.

In a sign violence could become much more widespread, the army called on youths loyal to Gbagbo to enlist in the military.

"The Young Patriots are at army headquarters to pick up weapons to go and fight. They will get a few days of training," an officer at army headquarters said.

Gbagbo's often violent youth wing is considered his most dangerous and unpredictable weapon. Its members have caused mayhem in the past and recently set up roadblocks everywhere, armed with AK-47s, sticks and machetes.

Gbagbo's government on Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire and the opening of dialogue.

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to vote on a sanctions resolution against Gbagbo on Wednesday.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Callus in Geneva; Writing by David Lewis, Tim Cocks and Richard Valdmanis; editing by Andrew Roche)

Rebels retreat from Libya oil port under attack

Moammar Gadhafi's ground forces recaptured a strategic oil town Wednesday and were close to taking a second, making new inroads in beating back a rebel advance toward the capital Tripoli. Western powers kept up the pressure to force Gadhafi out with new airstrikes to weaken his military, hints that they may arm the opposition and intense negotiations behind the scenes to find a country to give haven to Libya's leader of more than 40 years.

Airstrikes have neutralized Gadhafi's air force and pounded his army, but those ground forces remain far better armed, trained and organized than the opposition. The rebels, with few weapons more powerful than rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, can attack targets 3 to 4 miles (5 to 6 kilometers) away, but the loyalists' heavy weapons have a range of 12 miles (20 kilometers).

That disparity was obvious as government forces pushed back rebels who just two days earlier had been closing in on the strategic city of Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown and a bastion of support for the longtime leader. Under heavy shelling, rebels retreated from Bin Jawwad on Tuesday and from the oil port of Ras Lanouf on Wednesday.

Gadhafi's forces were shelling Brega, another important oil city to the east. A rebel soldier, Col. Abdullah Hadi, said he expected the loyalists to enter Brega by Wednesday night.

"I ask NATO for just one aircraft to push them back. All we need is air cover and we could do this. They should be helping us," Hadi said.

NATO planes flew over the zone where the heaviest fighting was under way earlier Wednesday and an Associated Press reporter at the scene heard explosions, but it was unclear whether any airstrikes hit the area. U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Clint Gebke, a spokesman for the NATO operation aboard the USS Mount Whitney, said he could not confirm any specific strikes but Western aircraft were engaging pro-Gadhafi forces in areas including Sirte and Misrata, the rebels' last significant holdout in western Libya.

The retreat Wednesday looked like a mad scramble: Pickup trucks, with mattresses and boxes tied on, driving east at 100 mph (160 kilometers per hour).

Many rebels regrouped east of Brega at the green, arching western gate of Ajdabiya, sharing water, dates and tuna sandwiches on a sandy, windswept plain next to two burned-out tanks and two burned-out cars from the airstrikes last week that drove Gadhafi's forces back. Three anti-aircraft guns mounted in back of pickup trucks pointed west down the road.

"There's something strange about the way he attacked us today," said Abdullah Abdel-Jalil, a 31-year-old ambulance driver. "The Grad rockets, the tanks, the quantity of it all, he's stronger than we thought. It's way too intense."

Dozens of civilians were seen heading north to Benghazi, and streets on the western side of Ajdabiya were deserted and silent. Among the rebels, the lack of air support was a common lament.

"We don't know why they're not here," said Moftah Mohammed, a 36-year-old rebel soldier. "Our forces are mainly on the side of the main road. We've heard Gadhafi's forces are pushing deep into the desert" in an attempt to head off rebel forces. "We don't want to be stuck in the middle of that."

Mohammed, however, thought loyalist forces would stop pursuing the rebels. "Gadhafi aims to take back Ras Lanouf and Brega because he's running out of oil. I think he'll stop there," he said.

As Gadhafi's forces push rebels toward their de-facto capital Benghazi, some 140 miles (220 kilometers) northeast of Brega, pressure is growing for NATO members and other supporters of the air campaign to do more.

Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain believes a legal loophole could allow nations to supply weapons to Libya's rebels — but stressed the U.K. has not decided whether it will offer assistance to the rebels.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that Washington also believes it would be legal to give the rebels weapons. As to whether the country would do so, President Barack Obama told NBC, "I'm not ruling it out, but I'm also not ruling it in."

France, one of the strongest backers of international intervention in Libya, believes arming rebels would require a new U.N. resolution; the existing one includes an arms embargo. But Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said, "We are ready to discuss it with our partners."

Under the U.N. resolution authorizing necessary measures to protect civilians, nations supplying weapons would need to be satisfied they would be used only to defend civilians — not to take the offensive to Gadhafi's forces.

Cameron's spokesman Steve Field said British and other diplomats were involved in negotiations with the rebel leadership in Benghazi partly to gauge if the opposition would be trustworthy allies.

"We are in the process of talking to those people and learning more about their intentions," Field told reporters.

NATO officials and diplomats said the alliance had given no consideration to arming the rebels. Any alliance involvement would require support from all 28 members, a difficult task, and an alliance official who could not be named under standing regulations said NATO "wouldn't even consider doing anything else" without a new U.N. resolution.

NATO is in the process of taking over control of the airstrikes, which began as a U.S.-led operation. Diplomats said they have given approval for the commander of the NATO operation, Canadian Gen. Charles Bouchard, to announce a handover on Thursday.

Another possibility to help the rebels is to ramp up airstrikes, which so far have been conducted with the stated goal of helping civilians. But even the airstrikes conducted so far have been criticized by some world powers.

Chinese President Hu Jintao called for an immediate cease-fire and admonished French President Nicolas Sarkozy, an ardent proponent of the bombing campaign, at a diplomatic meeting in Beijing. Hu called for peaceful efforts to restore stability, expressed China's concern that Libya may end up divided and said force would complicate a negotiated settlement.

Diplomats were attempting to persuade Gadhafi to leave without military force.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said negotiations on securing Gadhafi's exit were being conducted with "absolute discretion" and that there were options on the table that hadn't yet been formalized.

"What is indispensable is that there be countries that are willing to welcome Gadhafi and his family, obviously to end this situation which otherwise could go on for some time," he said.

But the Italian diplomat insisted immunity for Gadhafi was not an option. "We cannot promise him a 'safe-conduct' pass," he stressed.

Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa visited Tunisia briefly, but there was no word if this was linked to the secret talks.

Uganda appeared to be the first country to publicly offer Gadhafi refuge. The spokesman for Uganda's president, Tamale Mirundi, told the AP on Wednesday that he would be welcome there. Uganda, however, is a signatory to the statute that created the International Criminal Court, whose chief prosecutor is deciding whether to seek an indictment against Gadhafi.

The group Human Rights Watch said Gadhafi's forces laid land mines in the eastern outskirts of Adjabiya, an area they held from March 17 until Saturday, when airstrikes drove them west.

The group cited the electricity director for eastern Libya, Abdal Minam al-Shanti, who said two anti-personnel mines detonated when a truck ran over them, but no one was hurt. Al-Shanti said a civil defense team found and disarmed 24 anti-vehicle mines and an estimated 30 to 40 plastic anti-personnel mines in what Human Rights Watch described as a heavily traveled area.

"Libya should immediately stop using anti-personnel mines, which most of the world banned years ago," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.

France — which was the first nation to formally recognize the Libyan rebels — confirmed that a diplomatic presence was established in Benghazi on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe stressed that Antoine Sivan will not be a formal ambassador but rather a diplomat there to establish relations with the Council in Benghazi.

Britain, meanwhile, said it expelled five Libyan diplomats loyal to Gadhafi, including the country's military attache, because of their intimidation of opposition supporters and their potential threat to the U.K.'s national security.

___

Associated Press writers David Stringer in London, Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Angela Charlton in Paris, Godfrey Olukya in Kampala, Uganda, Christopher Bodeen in Beijing and Pauline Jelinek in Washington contributed to this report.

Top tennis trio face little resistance in Miami

Top seeds Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic all cruised into the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open with straight sets victories on Tuesday.

After rain delays earlier in the day, Federer took to the court at 12.40 a.m. local time but made short work of Belgian Olivier Rochus, winning 6-3 6-1 in just 52 minutes.

Federer, who faces Frenchman Gilles Simon next, will meet Nadal in the semi-finals should they both progress.

Nadal had a similarly easy match, facing virtually no resistance from Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov in a 6-1 6-2 victory, winning 86 percent of first service points without facing a single break point.

The Spanish world number one will meet Czech Tomas Berdych, a 6-3 2-6 7-6 victor over German Florian Mayer, in the quarter-finals.

Djokovic remains unbeaten in 2011, chalking up 21 successive wins, and that record was never in danger against fellow Serb Viktor Troicki in a straightforward 6-3 6-2 win.

The world number two was comfortable throughout and will now face South African Kevin Anderson in the last eight -- a player he lost to in this tournament three years ago.

"I will have an opportunity to get my revenge in the same court where I lost in 2008," the Serb said.

"But he keeps on playing really well on these courts, and you've got to give him credit for that. He beat some very good players and he has a big serve and is very aggressive. "

Djokovic though believes the South African will face a very different player though this time.

"I feel much more complete, as a more complete player today. I feel stronger and just have more experience. That's the difference from the player who was playing here three years ago," he added.

Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro, still making his way back from lengthy injury problems, fell to American Mardy Fish 7-5 7-6.

Fish is now one win away from replacing Andy Roddick as the top ranked American after his hard-fought victory in front of a crowd that was heavily backing his opponent.

Fish will overtake Roddick, who lost in his opening match here, should he beat Spain's David Ferrer in the quarter-finals.

(Editing by John O'Brien)

Fed may tighten before global risks fixed: Bullard

U.S. policymakers may not be willing or able to wait for all global uncertainties to be resolved before they begin normalizing loose monetary policy, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on Tuesday.

Such issues include the turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, the aftermath of the Japanese tsunami, the European sovereign debt crisis and the U.S. fiscal situation and possibility of a government shutdown, Bullard said in a speech in the Czech capital.

"Because we are so accommodative right now, the FOMC may not be willing or able to wait until every single global uncertainty is resolved before we can begin normalizing policy," he said, referring to the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee.

Bullard, who is not a voting member of the Fed's policy setting panel this year, added: "If we wait too long we will get a lot of inflation in the United States and around the world."

On the main global risks, he said that the most likely prospect was that they would be resolved "without becoming global macroeconomic shocks."

The Fed has kept short-term interest rates near zero since December 2008 and has bought more than $2 trillion in long-term securities to push borrowing costs down further and boost recovery from the 2007-2009 recession.

Bullard, seen as a centrist on the spectrum of supporters and opponents of aggressive Fed actions to boost the economy, said that the process of normalizing policy would still leave unprecedented policy accommodation on the table.

His comments on Tuesday came after he said at the weekend that the Fed should consider trimming its $600 billion bond purchase program given solid U.S. economic data.

On Monday, top Fed officials said the U.S. economy still needed support from the Fed's bond buying program, which is slated to end in June, with some suggesting recent spikes in gas and food price are likely to be short-lived.

GROWTH PROSPECTS IMPROVE

Bullard said in Prague on Tuesday that growth prospects remained reasonably good and had improved since last summer.

Anecdotal reports were more bullish, which showed "profitable businesses with considerable cash and an improving outlook," he said, adding an improving economy 18 months post-recession was a "strong positive."

"As 2011 started we were about 18 months past the end of the recession, and that's about the kind of timing when I would expect the economy to pick up and start growing fairly rapidly," Bullard said.

But he said any failure to address the U.S. fiscal situation would pose a risk to U.S. and global recovery.

President Barack Obama's Democrats on Monday offered to cut another $20 billion from the U.S. budget in an attempt to reach a deal with congressional Republicans that would avert a government shutdown.

Bullard said monetary policy could not remain ultra-accommodative indefinitely. "Discussion of the normalization of U.S. policy will likely return as the key issue in 2011," Bullard said.

(Writing by Michael Winfrey and Jason Hovet; Editing by Hugh Lawson/Hugh Lawson

Nervous U.S. Navy Eyes on Bahrain

While the troubles in Egypt and Tunisia are important in Washington's geo-strategic calculations, they don't rank highly in its selfish concern over real estate. All that changes when it comes to the tiny Persian Gulf state of Bahrain, an island tucked between Saudi Arabia and Qatar on the gulf's western shore with fewer than 1 million residents. The home of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet - and a recently-launched $580 million U.S. expansion effort slated to double the U.S. Navy's acreage there - could be in jeopardy if Bahrain's monarchy falls.

Thousands of Shiites protested in the capital of Manama on Tuesday. They were angry over the death of a man, in a clash between police and mourners, at a funeral for a demonstrator shot at an earlier anti-government rally, Reuters reports. The killing, a day after a "Day of Rage" of protests on Monday, suggested more unrest between Bahrain's majority Shiite Muslims and the Sunni security forces backed by the ruling Sunni Al Khalifa dynasty.

The (Iran-friendly) Shiite majority, which accounts for almost 70% of the population, wants the (Saudi-friendly) king, Sheik Hamid bin Isa al-Khalifa, to rewrite the constitution to give Shiites more power and opportunity, while also seeking investigations into allegations of torture and corruption (sound familiar?).

The downside to all this unpleasantness is that Bahrain is the U.S.'s most important post in the Persian Gulf. It's ground zero when it comes to monitoring the oil flow - nearly one gallon of every five used worldwide - down the gulf and through the narrow Strait of Hormuz. It's also a key base from which to eyeball Iran on the other side of the gulf.

The 5th Fleet and a base used by the U.S. Air Force both call Bahrain home. But the U.S. presence there has always been a sensitive topic. Following World War II, the U.S. had a large presence in Bahrain, but that shrunk in 1977 after Shiite efforts to end the monarchy there failed but succeeded in terminating a docking pact for U.S. warships. But the two sides kissed and made up following the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and the U.S. presence once again blossomed. There are up to 30 Navy vessels in the region at any one time, and they often dock in Bahrain for resupply and R&R.

And there's a welcome bonus for sailors in Bahrain. Unlike most other nations in the region, alcohol is available. In fact, it's so popular that the Navy has a "Tipsy Taxi" program so sailors who have had a bit too much to drink while out on the town can flash a special card at taxi drivers and get a free ride back to base.

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