* Ivory Coast's Gbagbo defiant against sanctions
* Resents foreign "interfering"
* Turmoil since disputed election
By Catherine Bremer
PARIS, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo is unfazed by the threat of EU sanctions and resents ex-colonial power France and other foreign governments interfering in the country's affairs, his spokesman said on Monday.
Spokesman Alain Toussaint said France was acting like a bossy schoolmaster in ordering Gbagbo to relinquish his post in the wake of a contested presidential election. Ivory Coast did not need European mediators to resolve its crisis, he said.
The West African state has been in turmoil since the Nov. 28 vote in which Gbagbo claimed victory backed by the nation's top legal body while a U.N.-certified provisional result named rival Alassane Ouattara the winner by a 10 percent margin.
"Ivory Coast's main problem is France, because its policy does not go in the direction of peace," Toussaint told Reuters in Paris, where he met French officials to discuss the crisis. "What we want is for France to respect our institutions."
He said Gbagbo was open to negotiating with his rivals but a mediator could just as well come from Africa than from overseas.
The European Union agreed on Monday to impose a travel ban on Gbagbo as fears grow of a return to civil war following unrest that has left more than 50 people dead. The travel ban will affect Gbagbo's wife and 17 close allies. [ID:nLDE6BJ0LO]
EU governments are also discussing a freeze on assets.
Well aware that intervening too loudly would fan tensions, France took a back seat in the crisis in its former colony until Friday when President Nicolas Sarkozy denounced Gbagbo's stand as scandalous and demanded he stand down fast or face sanctions.
Gbagbo has refused to take telephone calls from Sarkozy and Toussaint said he would only accept future calls if the French leader spoke to him respectfully, as an equal.
"Relations between friendly states should be relations marked by respect and consideration," Toussaint said. "The president should not behave as if (Gbagbo) was an agent or sub-prefect of France in Ivory Coast."
Washington has also threatened punitive measures as the crisis fans a divide between the Gbagbo-held south and rebel-held north in a nation torn apart by a 2002-03 civil war.
Ouattara's victory was overturned on grounds of alleged fraud by the Constitutional Council, a top legal body led by a staunch Gbagbo ally.
While Ouattara has been endorsed as president by the United Nations, African countries, Washington and the EU, Gbagbo controls the army and lucrative revenues from oil and cocoa.
Both the United Nations and France have defied Gbagbo's calls for them to quit the country, and fearing more violence some 5,000 Ivorians have fled to countries such as Liberia and Guinea.
Toussaint said that French nationals and other foreigners in Ivory Coast were not in danger of becoming targets of violence as they were not seen as representing their governments.
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