FRENCH troops rolled through the Ivory Coast countryside yesterday to protect Westerners as government soldiers headed for a showdown with rebels controlling two cities, who vowed to fight to the end in the West African nation's bloodiest-ever military uprising.

　　Frightened residents were on edge in the two northern cities where rebels were digging in for battle. One of the cities, Bouake, is the site of a boarding school for foreign missionaries' children — including some 100 Americans aged one to 12.

　　Government troops claimed Sunday to have already surrounded Bouake and to be holding off from immediate attack only out of desire to spare lives.

　　Fears grew of wider conflict splitting West Africa's one-time economic powerhouse, as the coup attempt tapped into the country's volatile divisions between the largely Christian south and the predominately Muslim north.

　　It was reported that some 600 French nationals are residing in the capital, near the rebel-held central city of Bouake.

　　Following a failed coup attempt that has left 270 people dead since Thursday, the French Government Sunday sent troop reinforcements to the West African country to ensure the security of French citizens and other foreigners living in the former French colony.

　　France said it deployed the reinforcements to protect the nation's 20,000 French citizens and others in the international community. Ivory Coast denied asking for French help putting down the uprising.

　　Nearly 200 foreigners are at Bouake's International Christian Academy, including 100 American children and around 40 more U.S. staffers, said James Forlines, director of Free Will Baptist Foreign Missions, which has missionaries in the region.