By Justyna Pawlak and Ange Aboa
BRUSSELS/ABIDJAN (Reuters) - The European Union imposed sanctions targeting Ivory Coast incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and his allies on Monday, raising international pressure on him to quit after a disputed election.
Gbagbo is in a power struggle with rival Alassane Ouattara, with both claiming victory in a November 28 poll meant to reunite the world's top cocoa grower after a 2002-3 civil war but which has instead deepened divisions and triggered street violence.
Ouattara was named winner by the electoral commission and has been endorsed by the U.N. Security Council and almost all world leaders. But Ivory Coast's pro-Gbagbo Constitutional Council said the vote was rigged and declared Gbagbo the winner.
In a sign of growing tensions, around 20 government troops armed with machine guns and grenade launchers deployed on Monday close to the UN-guarded hotel in Abidjan being used as a base by Ouattara and his supporters, a Reuters reporter saw.
There was no immediate comment on the deployment from the military, which backs Gbagbo. A Ouattara spokesman said the stand-off followed a failed attempt earlier in the day by government troops to erect a checkpoint near the hotel.
In Brussels, EU foreign ministers agreed to impose visa bans and assets freezes on Gbagbo and his backers as part of a set of sanctions designed to deepen his diplomatic isolation.
"We are of course worried about the situation in Ivory Coast," Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said.
The 27-member bloc agreed to draft a list of officials deemed to be "obstructing the process of peace and national reconciliation ... and who are jeopardising the proper outcome of the electoral process," ministers said in a statement.
The proposed sanctions echo measures that have been mooted by the United States. A U.S. State Department official warned Gbagbo last week that "the era of stealing elections is over."
Gbagbo, who has held on to power five years after the end of his term in office as elections have been repeatedly delayed, has dismissed the pressure as foreign meddling and retains control of state TV, government buildings and security forces.
U.N. PROTECTION
A Reuters reporter saw four pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns take up position on roads a few hundred metres from the lagoon-side Golf Hotel where Ouattara is guarded by dozens of UN peacekeepers with sandbagged machine gun positions.
A Ouattara spokesman said government troops had attempted earlier to set up a checkpoint in a street near the hotel but that pro-Ouattara rebel troops had prevented them from doing so and forced them to move away.
"The New Forces (rebels) removed the checkpoint. There was shooting but they fired in the air," Patrick Achi said by phone, referring to the forces that have held the north of the country since the civil war and have declared support for Ouattara.
The incident will add to tensions which since the poll have propelled cocoa futures prices to four-month highs, with the March contract up $11 (6.94 pounds) to $2,898 (1,827.24 pounds) on Monday. Ivory Coast supplies around a third of the world's cocoa.
Ivorians are increasingly nervous about the possibility of another war in the country whose once prosperous economy has been blighted by years of political stalemate after the war.
UN mission chief Y.J. Choi has said peacekeepers stationed at the Golf Hotel are under orders to protect Ouattara and his rival administration "at all costs."
At least 28 people have been killed in election-related violence since two days before the poll, including some killed by death squads targeting Ouattara activists.
The African Union and regional bloc ECOWAS have suspended Ivory Coast until Ouattara takes power.
Gbagbo's refusal to step down threatens to compromise a $3 billion (1 billion pounds) aid package. The International Monetary Fund has said it will not give aid his government is not recognised by the U.N.
Gbagbo has been in power since winning a disputed election in 2000, when thousands of his supporters took to the streets to help oust military coup leader General Robert Guei, who was accused of trying to rig the vote.
(Additional reporting by Tim Cocks in Abidjan; Writing by Mark John; Editing by Maria Golovnina)
