(Recasts with army resignations refused, demonstration ban) By Loucoumane Coulibaly ABIDJAN, Dec 2 (Reuters) - A firebrand youth leader loyal to Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo urged militants on Tuesday to lay siege to a French military base as the government slapped a ban on demonstrations after two days of violence. Hundreds of youths hurled stones at the base in the economic capital Abidjan but were repulsed as French and Ivorian security forces fired tear gas grenades at them. The call by Charles Ble Goude, leader of the militant "Young Patriots", came as rebels accused Gbagbo of orchestrating an attempted attack on their stronghold and creating chaos to undermine a shaky French-brokered peace deal. Two days of upheaval have raised the spectre of a return to battle despite the formal end to a civil war that erupted last year and split the world's top cocoa grower into a rebel-held north and government-held south. The protests outside the French base follow a weekend demand by a renegade group of pro-Gbagbo army officers that French troops quit a ceasefire line across the centre of the West African nation and that the country's top brass quit. Three top generals offered their resignations on Tuesday but Gbagbo declined the offer. A special adviser to Gbagbo told Reuters the offers were a clear sign the army was frustrated with its leaders, but it was up to Gbagbo to decide if and when they should be replaced. FRENCH HOLD LINE Civil war in the former French colony has inflamed anti-French sentiment as both sides accuse 4,000 French troops on the ground of supporting their enemies. France ruled out withdrawing its troops, who are keeping the peace under a U.N. mandate. Asked whether such a move was planned, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Paris told a news conference: "Absolutely not." Ble Goude called on Ivorians to descend on the base again on Wednesday, but he warned them against attacking French citizens. "We did not say we would burn (the base). We did not say we would kill French soldiers. We are going there to tell the French to get off the front line," he said at a meeting. The French embassy said several of its citizens had been targeted by the protesters on Tuesday, and some vehicles were badly damaged. Several foreign embassies warned their nationals to be cautious moving around the city. A government statement read out on state television on Tuesday evening said both the national and international community could rely on the Ivorian police to protect them. Gbagbo said in an interview published in a French newspaper on Tuesday that he wanted the French troops to stay but that he understood the protesters' and the soldiers' frustration. The protests follow an attempt by pro-Gbagbo militants, backed by heavily armed Ivorian soldiers, to march on the rebel stronghold of Bouake on Saturday. French troops halted them with warning shots, but the militants have pledged to return. Rebel leader Guillaume Soro accused Gbagbo of discrediting the peace deal signed in January near Paris. "Nobody is fooled. These plots and political manoeuvres are indeed the work of President Laurent Gbagbo who is pretending to be swamped by extremists in his regime and is, in this way, creating general chaos," Soro said in a statement on Monday. French President Jacques Chirac's spokeswoman said a visit by Gbagbo to Paris had been approved in principle, but would only hold real significance if the situation stabilised. She did not give a date for the meeting, widely expected this month. (Additional reporting by Silvia Aloisi, Ange Aboa, Clar Ni Chonghaile in Abidjan; Sophie Louet, Kerstin Gehmlich in Paris)
