By Ange Aboa

Abidjan - Security forces in Ivory Coast shot dead at least four demonstrators on Thursday as marchers gathered for a banned opposition protest against President Laurent Gbagbo in the main city, security officials said.

The body of a man with gunshot wounds to the chest was on the ground in the suburb of Yopougon. People standing by the body said anti-riot police had earlier fired into a small gathering of opposition protesters.

MI-24 helicopter gunships clattered overhead and tear gas fired by groups of paramilitary and anti-riot police mixed with the smoke from tires burning in the near empty streets.

March organisers gave differing death tolls

"They arrived. They said go away, go away and then they fired into the crowd. They are stopping us from marching," said a man standing by the dead body, which had a T-shirt with "National Reconciliation" written on the front.

A police officer in Yopougon told Reuters two protesters had been shot dead there. A spokesperson for the French army said two people had been shot dead in a different suburb called Koumassi.

March organisers gave differing death tolls. One said five marchers had died in those two suburbs. Another said a total of 14 people, including three police officers, had been killed in four different parts of Abidjan.

Witnesses said the security forces were also firing in the air and at groups of demonstrators trying to erect barricades in another popular suburb of Abidjan called Abobo.

Tension has been building in the sprawling port city of Abidjan as march organisers pledged to press ahead with their protest, despite the risk of a showdown with the army.

About 6 000 peacekeepers are due to deploy in the former French colony

Gbagbo's opponents are demanding the full implementation of a French-brokered peace deal signed last year to end civil war in the world's biggest cocoa grower.

The war officially ended in July but the opposition accuses the president of stalling on agreed reforms. Gbagbo's supporters say the rebels and their political allies are criminals bent on attaining power illegally.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday he was deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in Ivory Coast and called on all parties to "exercise utmost restraint".

About 6 000 peacekeepers are due to deploy in the former French colony to help 4 000 French soldiers and about 1 000 West African troops keep the peace and disarm the combatants.

The demonstrators aim to march on the presidential palace in the Plateau business district. The army has said anyone coming near the area will be considered an "enemy" and treated as such.

The normally bustling Plateau district was quiet on Thursday morning. Shops and businesses were closed. An armoured vehicle with mounted heavy machinegun stood at a junction while pickups with soldiers roved the pitted, tree-lined streets.

A lone pedestrian was turned back by a soldier not far from the presidential palace. "This is a red zone," he said.

(Additional reporting by Silvia Aloisi)