The only thing left to discuss with Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo is his departure and it is "absurd" for him to hang on, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Wednesday.
"This obstinacy is absurd. Gbagbo has no future henceforth. Everybody's dropped him. He's holed up in his residence," said Juppe.
"With the United Nations, which is at the helm, we are going to continue to exert pressure on him to face up to reality," Juppe said in an interview with France Info radio.
French armed forces chief Edouard Guillaud said negotiations with Gbagbo "continued through the night but unfortunately I see no breakthrough for now."
"Despite that, I believe it is a matter of hours, possibly during the day," he told Europe 1 radio.
Strikes against Gbagbo's camp could resume at the request of the United Nations and if he continued to refuse to step down, Guillaud added.
He too said Gbagbo was still in his presidential residence and had nearly agreed to surrender twice in the past few days before backtracking at the insistence of people close to him.
"He is shut inside the president's residence and his allies only hold the grounds around the presidential residence," he said.
In the event of a surrender, the most likely option for Gbagbo would be to go into exile, he added.
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