Unrest still swept Abidjan, the main commercial city of Cote d'Ivoire, on Monday with gunshots resounding, after Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo appealed for calm on television.

In a televised speech on Sunday evening, Gbagbo called on anti-French demonstrators not to assault foreigners and representatives of international organizations, but to return home in calm. It was his first public address since riots erupted in Abidjan on Saturday.

The military on Sunday also called for an end to anti-French violence and asked its personnel to remain calm.

The mob violence against European residents in the country has destroyed public order, a military spokesman said in a statement.

Thousands of people still massed outside Gbagbo's home on Monday, facing off against French armored vehicles in fear of an alleged attempt to depose Gbagbo. French troops tried to disperse the protesters by firing warning shots into the air, witnesses said.

The Ivorian military started an offensive in the rebel-held north last Thursday. On Saturday, its warplanes bombed a French base near the rebel stronghold of Bouake, killing nine French soldiers and an American relief worker.

The air attacks drew immediate retaliation by France, which destroyed almost the entire air force of Cote d'Ivoire. The exchange of fire triggered mass anti-French protests in Abidjan. Some French businesses have been looted.

The French side has taken control of the Abidjan airport, where hundreds of foreign nationals were sheltered nearby. First French reinforcement arrived in Abidjan on Sunday.

French President Jacques Chirac insisted Monday that the mission of French forces is simply to guarantee the security of its citizens in Cote d'Ivoire. France will continue its peacekeeping task in the African country, he added.

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Monday quoted the statistics of Abidjan's hospitals as saying that at least 410 people have been injured in Sunday's clashes.

Diplomats said on Monday that France is pushing the UN Security Council to vote in the coming days on a draft resolution to impose an arms embargo and other sanctions on Cote d'Ivoire.

Legal experts of the 15 council members discussed the draft earlier on Monday, presented by France on Sunday with the aim of stopping violence and reviving the long-stalled peace process in the West African country.

Besides the arms embargo, the draft also calls for the creation of a Security Council committee to establish a list of Ivorians, who would be subject to a travel ban and a freeze on their funds and financial assets.

Meanwhile, the bodies of the nine French soldiers killed were brought back to France on Monday morning, French Defense Minister Michelle Alliot-Marie told Europe 1 radio.

The minister said there would be an official ceremony presided over by President Chirac at the Invalides Museum in Paris on Wednesday.

She also said 38 injured soldiers were expected back later in the day.

The Ivorian attack was "extremely serious," the minister said, but there would not be a planned evacuation of the 16,500 French citizens resident in the war-torn country.

While the Ivorian authorities said the bombing of the French position was a mistake, Alliot-Marie insisted there was no reason for such a mistake.

South African President Thabo Mbeki will visit Cote d'Ivoire on Tuesday to mediate in the ongoing civil conflict, said the South African government.

Mbeki was mandated by the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States at the weekend to help mediate a political solution to the fresh fighting in the country, following armed conflict resumed there last week when government aircraft attacked targets in rebel held areas.

A former French colony, Cote d'Ivoire has suffered a civil war arising from a failed coup in September 2002. Currently about 4,000 French soldiers are deployed in the country as part of a UN peacekeeping mission.

The Gbagbo government and the rebel forces signed a peace agreement in France in early 2003, but the peace process hit snags this summer due to differences over the disarmament of the rebels.

The two sides, with the help of Annan, reached an accord in August in Accra, Nigeria, promising to revive the peace process. But the rebels refused to start disarming in mid-October after the government failed to conduct legislative reforms as required by the accord.