The French army in Ivory Coast has confirmed it has found corpses and signs of serious violence against civilians at a deserted rebel-held town.
Rebel commander Mr Ousmane Coulibaly said he believed more than 200 civilians were killed in Friday's attack on Bangolo, which he blamed on Liberian mercenaries allied to President Mr Laurent Gbagbo's army.
He said the victims were mostly foreigners and Ivorians from the mainly Muslim north.
A senior French military source in western Ivory Coast said last night the 200 figure could be accurate. France has more than 3,000 troops in its former colony where civil war broke out in September after a failed coup.
The fighting in western Ivory Coast at the weekend came as rebels and feuding politicians agreed in Ghana to set up a joint security council and form a new government including all major political groups and rebel factions by March 14th.
The rebels said they repulsed the assault on Bangolo, some 375 miles northwest of Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan - but not before the attackers reached the centre of town and started killing civilians suspected of backing the rebels.