Forces loyal to Cote d'Ivoire's internationally recognized leader Alassane Ouattara have stormed the residence where his rival and incumbent president is holed up, a spokesman has said.

“Yes they (Ouattara forces) are in the process of entering the residence to seize (Laurent) Gbagbo, they have not taken him yet, but they are in the process; they are in the building,” Affousy Bamba told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.
Patrick Achi, another spokesman for Ouattara's parallel government, said troops had been ordered not to kill Gbagbo.
“Alassane Ouattara has given formal instructions that Gbagbo is to be kept alive because we want to bring him to justice,” he said.
The news came hours after Edouard Guillaud, the French armed forces chief, said on Wednesday Gbagbo's departure would come in “a matter of hours”.
Earlier, Gbagbo said it was not his “aim to die” fighting Ouattara forces and called for direct talks with his rival.
“I'm not a kamikaze. I love life. My voice is not the voice of a martyr, no, no, no, I'm not looking for death. It's not my aim to die,” Gbagbo, speaking from his residence on Tuesday, told the French TV channel LCI.
“For peace to return to Ivory Coast, I and Ouattara, the two of us, have to talk,” he added.
Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa, reporting from Bassam near Abidjan , said Wednesday's attack followed Gbagbo's refusal to “sign a document” in which he had to say he was ready to step down.
“Gbagbo refused. That infuriated the Ouattara camp and then, it seems, they tried to go forward and try to capture him,” she said.
The UN and France, the former colonial master with more than 1,000 troops in Cote d'Ivoire, had said Gbagbo departure was being negotiated following a fierce assault by Ouattara's forces.
Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, said the “only thing left to negotiate” were the conditions of Gbagbo's departure.
“We have asked the United Nations to guarantee his physical security and that of his family ... “ Alain Juppe told France Info radio on Wednesday.
“This stubbornness is absurd. Gbagbo has no other solution anymore. Everybody has dropped him.”
After the evening newscast on Tuesday, Ouattara's private TV station showed the movie “Downfall”, which traces the last days of Nazi Germany from inside Adolf Hitler's bunker.
“He is holed up in the bunker in his residence so we will continue with the United Nations, which is handling that, to put pressure on him so he accepts to acknowledge the reality: There is only one legal and legitimate president today, it is Alassane Ouattara and I hope that persuasion will win and that we will avoid having to resume the military operations,” said Juppe.
Gbagbo had denied he was willing to surrender and rejected demands he recognize Ouattara as the winner of last November's presidential runoff in the western African nation.
'Hunkered in a bunker'
Gbagbo told LCI his army had called for a ceasefire after their weaponry was destroyed by the French and UN airstrikes, said diplomats.
He reiterated that he considered himself the winner of the election, although the African Union and ECOWAS, the west African regional bloc, both endorsed Ouattara.
Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland in Paris said there was no word from the foreign ministry on the fate of Gbagbo.
“They (foreign ministry officials) have not been able to give us anything further and all we know now is Gbagbo is hunkered down in a bunker,” she said.
“The French ... were trying to find a negotiated way out of this crisis. There were talks involving two generals loyal to Gbagbo, but it is quite clear now that talking has past and it looks as though this crisis may indeed be resolved by military force after all.”
photo: Soldiers loyal to Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara ride a vehicle through the main city Abidjan April 6, 2011. Reuters Picture