Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo was negotiating the terms of his departure from power today following a fierce assault by forces loyal to his presidential rival backed by UN and French helicopter airstrikes.
France said it expected a swift exit by Mr Gbagbo, who had clung to power since refusing to concede he lost last November's presidential election to Alassane Ouattara, plunging the world's top cocoa-growing nation into renewed civil war.
Mr Gbagbo has not surrendered yet but has suggested he wants to do so and has requested United Nations protection, a UN official said this evening.
"He (Gbagbo) has not surrendered, but has expressed a willingness to surrender and has asked for UN protection," a UN official said on condition of anonymity. He added that negotiations with Gbagbo's people in Abidjan continue.
"We are on the brink of convincing him to leave power," French foreign minister Alain Juppe told parliament in Paris.
Earlier, a Gbagbo spokesman said the incumbent was negotiating the terms of his departure based on the recognition of Mr Ouattara as president. The spokesman said the negotiations covered security guarantees for Mr Gbagbo and his relatives. "If everything goes well, we will have a declaration soon," he said.
Mr Gbagbo was said to be in Abidjan, with some media reports saying he was in a bunker below his residence. His forces called for a ceasefire after being comprehensively outgunned, and French defence minister Gerard Longuet said the West African country's crisis could soon be over.
"We are in a situation where everything could be resolved in the next few hours," Mr Longuet told a news conference.
The international community is pushing for Mr Gbagbo to sign a document handing power to Alassane Ouattara as a condition of his departure, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.
"We demand, and I have just had a conversation with the Secretary General of the United Nations on this who agrees entirely, that Gbagbo's departure be preceded by the publication of a document with his signature in which he resigns from office and recognises Ouattara as president," Mr Juppe told a parliamentary commission today.
US president Barack Obama called on Mr Gbagbo to stand down immediately and order his fighters to lay down their arms.
The United Nations mission in the country said Mr Gbagbo's army chiefs had asked their men surrender their arms to UN forces and seek protection.
Over the past week, forces loyal to Mr Ouattara had launched a major assault on Mr Gbagbo's last strongholds in Abidjan, driving home their campaign to oust him.
Calm had returned to the area surrounding the presidential palace after days of fierce machinegun and heavy weapons fire.
The UN peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast, supported by the French military, had targeted Mr Gbagbo's heavy weapons capabilities yesterday with attack helicopters after civilians were killed in shelling.
In the north of Abidjan, bullet-riddled bodies lay by the side of the main motorway near the largely pro-Gbagbo neighbourhood of Yopougon, evidence of recent fighting. An armoured personnel carrier was pushed across the roadway, still in flames, and residents who had emerged from their houses to find water said they had heard machinegun and heavy weapons fire through the night.
The United Nations human rights office in Geneva today expressed concern over the killings of dozens of civilians in Abidjan, amid reports of heavy weapons used in populated areas.
Mr Gbagbo has defied international pressure to give up the presidency after an election last November that UN-certified results showed Mr Ouattara won, rejecting the results as fraudulent and accusing the United Nations of bias.
More than 1,500 people are reported to have died in the standoff that has rekindled the country's 2002-3 civil war, though the real toll is likely much higher.