It was the culmination of a four-month standoff that has underscored both the strengths and limits of international diplomacy. For months, Mr. Gbagbo has refused to step down after losing a presidential election last year, angrily defying global condemnation and hard-hitting sanctions as his nation spiraled back into civil war.
In the end, it came down to force. The international stance, taken by African and Western countries alike, greatly weakened Mr. Gbagbo’s ability to govern. But his willingness even to discuss the terms of his exit came only after opposition forces swept across the country and France and the United Nations entered the fight, striking targets at his residence, his offices and two of his military bases in what they called an effort to protect civilians.
On Tuesday, a day after the international attacks, France’s foreign minister, Alain Juppé, said at a Parliament hearing that French negotiators were helping to broker Mr. Gbagbo’s surrender, demanding that he sign a document formally recognizing Alassane Ouattara, the man who won the election, as the country’s legitimate president. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, had backed the French terms, Mr. Juppé said.
“What is going on are negotiations with Laurent Gbagbo and his family, to finalize the conditions of his departure,” he said.
Despite running out of options, Mr. Gbagbo continued to sound defiant on Tuesday, telling French television that he had not surrendered, that he remained the legitimate president and that France had declared war against Ivory Coast.
“Yesterday, Monday, France entered directly into war against us,” he said. "Before that, it was at war with us, but in an indirect way.”
Diplomats said Mr. Gbagbo appeared to believe he still had a bargaining position, though his government and armed forces had collapsed around him.
“It’s over but he’s still trying to play games,” a senior Western diplomat in Abidjan said Tuesday night, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the negotiations were still under way. “The exact substance of what he’s trying to negotiate is foggy.”
The United Nations said Tuesday that Mr. Gbagbo’s top three generals had called “to say that an order to stop fighting was being given,” and that their troops were being told to hand in their weapons to United Nations forces and ask for their protection.
But the situation remained very much in flux. “It’s far from settled, but it’s close to being over,” said the American ambassador to Ivory Coast, Phillip Carter.
Even if Mr. Gbagbo agreed to step down, officials for Mr. Ouattara said they would insist on him being prosecuted — either at home or abroad — for the extended campaign of armed repression he waged against opponents for four months after the election.
“He will be prosecuted,” said Apollinaire Yapi, a spokesman for Mr. Ouattara. “He must be prosecuted. Do we keep him here, do we send him abroad, I don’t know,” he continued, adding: “He must answer for his actions.”
It was also unclear whether Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters would accept Mr. Ouattara as president. While President Obama said Tuesday that he strongly supported the United Nations and French strikes against Mr. Gbagbo’s military positions, saying they were part of a “mandate to protect civilians,” many Ivorians will see them as part of a Western plot to undermine the nation’s sovereignty, a theme Mr. Gbagbo has exploited to great effect over the four-month crisis.
In that vein, a spokesman for Mr. Gbagbo, Ahoua Don Mello, described the international military strikes on Monday, which France and the United Nations said were aimed at the kind of heavy weapons that had been used against civilians during the crisis, as an attempt to assassinate Mr. Gbagbo.
“The residence of the head of state is not a heavy weapon,” he told French television, referring to French assertions that the attacks were directed at heavy artillery and armored vehicles stationed at Mr. Gbagbo’s residence and offices.
Throughout the four-month crisis, international officials have warned both sides not to attack civilians, and international prosecutors have threatened to bring criminal charges, to little avail. United Nations officials have also threatened to run roadblocks and use robust force to protect civilians, but the military strikes this week stood out as a notable departure from their usual peacekeeping efforts.
Alain Le Roy, head of peacekeeping operations at the United Nations, described the use of airstrikes on Mr. Gbagbo’s forces this week as a necessity. “It was a heavy decision,” he said.
France, the nation’s former colonial ruler, has about 1,650 troops in Ivory Coast and hoped that United Nations and Ivorian authorities under Mr. Ouattara would take charge of the “departure conditions of Gbagbo” once an agreement was reached, Mr. Juppé said.
Several hundred French soldiers patrolled Abidjan on Tuesday, but neither French nor United Nations forces engaged in any additional strikes against pro-Gbagbo forces or installations, according to Col. Thierry Burkhard, a spokesman for the French armed forces. Fighting between soldiers loyal to Mr. Gbagbo and to Mr. Ouattara appeared to have all but stopped by midmorning Tuesday, he said.
Mr. Gbagbo seemed to agree to at least that much. His foreign minister, Alcide Djédjé, said Mr. Gbagbo had sent him to the French ambassador’s residence to negotiate a cease-fire. Speaking on French radio from the residence afterward, Mr. Djédjé said a cease-fire was “already in place.”
Still, there was sporadic firing, with groups of Mr. Gbagbo’s armed supporters looting and threatening the rare citizens who ventured out. There was almost no traffic.
“Weapons were so widely distributed, there are groups of young men who are using them to terrorize the population, or to pillage,” Mr. Yapi said.
Adam Nossiter reported from Takoradi, and Scott Sayare from Paris. Dan Bilefsky contributed reporting from the United Nations.