Ivory Coast president says French forces to withdraw

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said on Tuesday that French forces would withdraw from the West African nation, continuing the former colonial power's military exit from the region.

Speaking in an end-of-year address to the nation, Ouattara said Ivorians should be proud of the modernised state of their own armed forces.

"In this context, we have decided on the coordinated and organised withdrawal of French forces," he said.

France has been considering reducing its military presence in West and Central African countries, including Ivory Coast, to 600 troops from around 2,200 now, sources told Reuters in November.

France, whose colonial rule in West Africa ended in the 1960s, has already pulled its soldiers out of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, following military coups in those countries and spreading anti-French sentiment.

The government of Chad - a key Western ally in the fight against Islamic militants in the region - abruptly ended its defence cooperation pact with France in November.