Abidjan - The Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo said his country was not heading for civil war, after his government sent in troops to quash street violence on Friday, ahead of the parliamentary election on Sunday, and arrested hundreds of people, including opposition figures.
"We have clashes like that, but there will be no civil war. And certainly not because an individual has been kept away from the election race," Gbagbo told the French newspaper, Le Figaro.
That was in clear reference to opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, whose ban from standing in the elections decided by Ivory Coast's supreme court sparked bloodshed on Monday and Tuesday between his supporters and security forces.
The government says 18 opposition supporters and two members of the security forces died in the running clashes, while Ouattara's Rally of Republicans (RDR) party claimed 30 had been killed.
Gbagbo has placed the west African country under a state of emergency in the run-up to the elections and, on Wednesday, his interior minister, Emile Boga Doudou, said 340 people had been arrested and would face trial.
Those in detention included three top RDR officials, including the group's spokesperson, Aly Coulibaly.
On Monday and Tuesday, the security forces violently repressed the protests and have been hunting down RDR supporters.
The security forces have brutally targeted northerners - Ouattara comes from the mainly Muslim north of the country - and many of his supporters now say they feel disenfranchised from the vote.
Ouattara himself is said to be resting in France, Ivory Coast's former colonial power.
In his newspaper interview, Gbagbo said the north of the country had been ignored by investors for a long time, and hinted that this was part of the reason for the unrest.
"It's true that the north poses certain problems. Since colonisation, all investment has been made in the 'useful' part of Ivory Coast, around the forest areas. It seems essential today to start economic development of the north," he said.
Gbagbo comes from the Christian south, the west African country's traditional powerbase.
He took office at the end of October after a mass uprising ousted military ruler General Robert Guei, who took power after the country's first coup in December last year.
Guei had tried to claim victory in the presidential elections when it became clear Gbagbo was winning.
Clashes between Ouattara and Gbagbo supporters after the uprising left more than 100 dead.
Ouattara, a former prime minister, had been banned from those elections for the same reason as this time round: official doubts over his nationality. Ouattara's opponents say he is not Ivorian, but Burkinabe.
The Organisation of African Unity, the United Nations and the European Union have all withdrawn their support from the coming election and will not be sending observers in protest against the decision not to allow Ouattara to run. - Sapa-AFP