Options running out for Laurent Gbagbo?

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- The window of opportunity for Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo to step down peacefully is closing quickly, the U.S. ambassador to the Ivory Coast said.

Gbagbo, the incumbent president of the Ivory Coast, refuses to step down despite a U.N. resolution recognizing Alassane Ouattara as the winner of a November election.

The election was meant to unite a country divided by civil war but led to a simmering political stalemate that is moving closer to international military intervention.

Phillip Carter, the U.S. envoy to the Ivory Coast, said African leaders aren't interested in war but the options for Gbagbo are limited.

"(African leaders) all recognize that the human rights abuses that are occurring in Abidjan and the western part of the country are something that has to be attended to," he was quoted by Voice of America as saying. "And the question of accountability is coming up. And so that window for Gbagbo to leave honorably, peacefully, with amnesty -- that window's closing."

Carter blamed forces loyal to Gbagbo for more than 200 executions and 100 disappearances since the political crisis escalated late last year.