The French army will stay in former colony Ivory Coast for as long as the West African country's government and the international community wants it to, chief of defence staff Henri Bentegeat said on Friday. Militant supporters of Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo have accused French troops of killing scores of protesters when they used helicopters and tanks to quell rioting and protect French citizens in the main city Abidjan last month. They have demanded that Paris pull out some 5,000 French troops stationed in Ivory coast, the world's top cocoa producer which has been divided since a 2002 civil war. "France will maintain a military presence in Ivory Coast at the request of the Ivorian government, the United Nations and the African Union," Bentegeat told a news conference in Abidjan. "(We) don't have any national aim other than that fixed by the international community. We have no hidden agenda." Relations between France and the former economic jewel of French-speaking Africa soured severely in early November when France wiped out the country's air force after Ivorian planes bombed a French military base, killing nine peacekeepers. --More 2148 Local Time 1848 GMT
