Tension is rising in Cote d'Ivoire as opposition and government supporters threaten to oppose a new peace plan expected to be approved on Tuesday by the United Nations Security Council to reunite the divided country.

A 12-month extension of President Laurent Gbagbo's mandate endorsed by the Security Council in October last year failed to result in long-awaited presidential elections, and the polls have been postponed again. They were to have been held before 31 October.

African leaders have recommended that Gbagbo stay on for another year provided he transfers most of his powers, including control of the security forces, to Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny.

The African recommendations, which are to serve as a blueprint for the new UN resolution, provide for Banny to appoint military personnel and to govern by decree.

But a draft resolution circulated by former colonial power France and published in local newspapers has reportedly sparked outcry from Gbagbo.

In a confidential letter allegedly sent to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and published Monday in the opposition newspaper Nord-Sud, Gbagbo said he considered a transfer of his powers as "an attack on the sovereignty of my country".

And his supporters, saying the resolution is a French conspiracy designed to strip the embattled president of his powers, warn they won't accept what they consider a suspension of the Ivorian constitution .

The National Congress for Democratic Resistance, an umbrella group for the militant Young Patriot movement, said in a statement last week that French peacekeepers were "preparing to topple the legal and legitimate power" of Gbagbo.

Some 11,000 French and UN peacekeeping troops have been patrolling a buffer zone between the government-run south and the rebel-held north since a failed coup in 2002 triggered a brief civil war.

Pro-Gbagbo Young Patriots have staged violent anti-French and anti-UN demonstrations in the past, accusing foreign powers of meddling in the four-year-old conflict.

But a coalition of opposition parties told its supporters over the weekend to be ready to act if the Young Patriots take to the streets to protest the UN resolution.

"We won't allow the patriots to terrorise the population again," said Virginie Toure of the main opposition Rally of the Republicans (RDR). "If they go out and demonstrate, we will go out too. We will not remain silent this time. We will make ourselves heard."

Rebels and opposition leaders insist that Gbagbo step down, while Gbagbo says the constitution allows him to remain in office until elections are held.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Cote d’Ivoire already said last week it was concerned about "inflammatory statements by certain Ivorian political leaders ... likely to inflame an already tense social and political climate".

Analysts say hardliners within the presidential camp want Gbagbo to sack the transitional power-sharing government and appoint a cabinet of ruling party stalwarts.

"The situation is completely unpredictable," a Western diplomat told IRIN. "It depends on how things will be drafted in New York. The text circulated by France was quite radical and I hope it will be watered down."