Ivory Coast rebels have reinforced their stronghold positions to face another loyalist assault after rejecting a government offer for talks if they disarmed.
Rebels of the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast hold most of the north after a three-week uprising that has left hundreds dead and raised fears of a full-blown civil war that could destabilise West Africa.
After two days of failed attempts to recapture the rebel-held city of Bouake, President Laurent Gbagbo said he was prepared to negotiate but insisted his enemies disarm first.
Loyalist forces launched an offensive at the weekend after Mr Gbagbo rejected West African proposals, backed by former colonial power France, for a ceasefire that would have frozen front lines and left the rebels with their guns.
Mr Gbagbo said that to talk to the rebels before they disarmed would mean giving them legitimacy and could encourage similar movements across the continent.
The insurrection has left well over 300 dead and heightened ethnic tension in the polarised country of 16 million, a quarter of whom are immigrants who came to what was once a haven of stability and prosperity in a troubled region.
The army holds the mainly Christian south, where people from Mr Gbagbo's Bete and other tribes are heavily opposed to any ceasefire deal with the rebels who hold the Muslim north, from where many of them originate.
Fears of spreading turmoil in the world's biggest cocoa producer and the arrival of rebel fighters on the edge of a key farming region have kept prices for the beans used to make chocolate around 16-year highs.