The chief of Ivory Coast's main cocoa-exporting port Abidjan played down its inclusion on an EU sanctions list on Monday, saying the only victims would be European firms contracted to carry out work at the port.

I think these are idiotic decisions, Abidjan port chief Marcel Gossio told Reuters of an EU move to freeze assets and funds of the country's main ports and other bodies in protest at incumbent Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to step down after a November 28 election he is widely judged abroad to have lost.

It means they will freeze the accounts of Abidjan port in their countries. But the accounts are there to pay European contractors. So I won't pay them and that will be it, he said.