Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo arrived back in the country late Sunday from an African summit in Paris where he approved a peace deal to end the country's four-month civil war, a diplomatic source here said.

Gbagbo, who left for France last Thursday, arrived back at an airstrip near Abidjan to find the country rocked by massive anti-French protests.

The protesters besieged the French embassy for several hours on Sunday and attacked French-owned businesses, several offices of the French mobile telephone firm Orange, and demonstrated in front of a French military garrison near Abidjan's airport.

They were angered that the peace deal brokered by France for its former colony gives key portfolios to rebels and opposition figures to secure and end to the ruinous war.

Gbagbo was accompanied aboard a French military flight by France's ambassador to the west African nation Gildas le Lidec.

During his stay in Paris, Gbagbo announced the setting up of a "national reconciliation" government to be headed by "consensus" prime minister Seydou Diarra, a neutral figure who has held the post before in Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer.

Gbagbo left Paris earlier than scheduled due to the violent anti-French protests here against the peace accord.

French Defence Michele Alliot-Marie said France would not beef up the estimated 2,500 troops it has deployed in Ivory Coast to protect French nationals and other foreigners and to enforce a shaky truce between government troops and rebels who have taken over half the country - Sapa-AFP.