BRUSSELS, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo should surrender his presidential post rapidly or he will face international sanctions, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday.
"There's no other solution for Mr Gbagbo but to quit a post he is usurping," Sarkozy told a news conference in Brussels at the end of a European Union summit.
Gbagbo is locked in a power struggle with Alassane Ouattara as both claim victory in a Nov. 28 presidential election that was meant to reunite the world's top cocoa grower after a 2002-03 civil war, but which has instead deepened divisions. Ouattara is widely recognised abroad as having won the election legitimately. (Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry; Writing by Brian Love; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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