By Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times
April 6, 2011, 11:03 a.m.
Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa—
Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the U.N.-recognized president of Ivory Coast, on Wednesday called off a brief cease-fire and renewed attacks on the presidential residence where his rival is clinging to power.

While heavy-weapons fire had stopped later in the day, there was still shooting heard in the vicinity of the residence, where Laurent Gbagbo is believed to have retreated to an underground bunker guarded by youth militia and presidential guards, according to news agencies.

Earlier, residents had reported fierce fighting around the residence, which is in the upscale Cocody neighborhood of the Ivorian commercial capital of Abidjan.

"The fighting is terrible here, the explosions are so heavy my building is shaking," resident Alfred Kouassi told Reuters news service. "We can hear automatic gunfire and also the thud of heavy weapons. There's shooting all over the place."

Gbagbo doesn't have a strong hand: he is surrounded by the enemy, isolated by the world, was deserted the day before by his military and is deprived of his propaganda arm, RTI state television.

After Gbagbo refused to surrender Tuesday, pro-Ouattara forces announced a new assault to remove him by force.

But a U.N. spokesman told Agence France-Presse that negotiations on Gbagbo's departure were continuing.

Gbagbo's one remaining card is the support he retains in the population. He won 46% of the vote in November's election, significantly less than Ouattara's 54% but still a large portion of the population.

robyn.dixon@latimes.com