"You think I am going to leave my country without air defense?" Gbagbo asked France Inter radio, challenging French forces to destroy the replacement planes.

The Ivorian president said he had ordered an investigation into the November 6 attack that killed nine French peacekeepers and an American civilian in a buffer zone between the rebel-held north and the government-controlled south of the country where civil war broke out in September 2002.

He said France's retaliatory destruction of "all of the Ivory Coast's aircraft on the ground was a hasty, violent decision that I have not yet succeeded in understanding."

The French destroyed the electronic equipment aboard two Sukhoi-25 fighters that they said took part in the attack, and they immobilized three military helicopters allegedly involved in violating an 18-month-old ceasefire.

"That is what drove people into the streets," Gbagbo said, referring to massive anti-French demonstrations and mob violence that erupted last weekend, egged on by hate-filled radio broadcasts. "And we cannot control everyone."

Gbagbo said his government was extremely concerned over the escape of 4,000 prisoners from Abidjan's top-security jail which he said had led to looting and violence aimed at Europeans.

But he played down the subsequent exodus of foreign nationals from Ivory Coast, estimating that 3,000 had left France's onetime star colony, but adding: "They will come back."

Gbagbo said in another interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera that he was not seeking the withdrawal of French forces, who are in Ivory Coast under a bilateral agreement and a UN mandate.

"Obviously we are not happy that the French (soldiers) act as though they are in charge, that they occupy our airports and that you have to go through their control to enter or leave the country. But we hope that this will soon pass so that we can return to our old understanding."

Referring to Chirac, Gbagbo told Corriere, "I do not know why he hates me so -- why he has done all this to the Ivory Coast. Ever since I have been president I have done nothing against French interests or against France. Frankly, I don't understand why they treat me like this."

Chirac suggested in Marseille that Gbagbo was leading his country toward fascism.

He said France would continue its UN mission and vowed that he would not allow a situation to develop that could "lead to anarchy or a regime of a fascist nature."

In another interview with the Rome daily La Repubblica, Gbagbo said it was "unfair and intolerable" that French armored vehicles had briefly surrounded his residence, leading him to believe that France was leading a putsch against him.

"I was not concerned for myself but for the consequences of such a provocative act," he said. "And that was the case. Thousands of people took to the streets, French sharpshooters fired on the crowd and more than 60 Ivorians were killed."

According to the Ivorian military, 22 people were killed during the demonstrations. French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said the deaths resulted from firefights between the Ivory Coast military and "Young Patriot" gangs loyal to Gbagbo.

Gbagbo said the French "have not yet realized they are making a martyr of me."

"They are wrong to behave like this, and until they understand this, it will be difficult to have good relations with them," he told La Repubblica. But he affirmed that if France could make friends with Germany it could certainly do so with Ivory Coast, and a way would be found to resume dialogue.