UNITED NATIONS – France failed yesterday to unite the Security Council behind a resolution that would immediately impose an arms embargo on the Ivory Coast, where French peacekeepers took strong military measures that invited comparison to American actions against insurgents in Iraq.

The French retaliatory actions included the destruction of the entire tiny Ivorian air force, after Ivorian jets bombed a French military camp, killing 20, including nine French peacekeepers and one American citizen.

Yesterday, French forces opened fire as protesters massed between the Ivory Coast president’s home and an evacuation post for foreigners. A hospital reported seven people were killed and more than 200 wounded, according to the Associated Press.

The protest raised against taking action on the Ivory Coast sounded very much like the criticism of American actions in Iraq. “They seem to act on a unilateral basis, and this is unacceptable,” Ivorian U.N. Ambassador Philippe Djangone-Bi, told reporters. “How can you go, in cold blood, destroy all the air force of one country?” he demanded. “They should get their orders not from their government but from the U.N.”

The French attack destroyed four SU-25 jets and some Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters acquired by the Ivory Coast from Belarus, as well as two presidential private jets.

“It was a deliberate act,” said the French ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, referring to the attack on the French camp. He dismissed allegations that just like the Americans in Iraq, France acted without official authorization from the council. “The decision taken by President Chirac to destroy the air force was widely supported by the Security Council,” he said.

America certainly gave its backing to France’s action. “It was simply a response to a premeditated attack on a French military base, which I might say an American was killed as well,” said Ambassador John Danforth.

The attack was the culmination of a major deterioration of a fragile ceasefire imposed by France a year ago in the Western African cocoa-manufacturing country that had been torn by civil war between the largely Muslim rebels in the north and the government of President Gbagbo.

White House spokesman Scott Mc-Clellan called to “immediately end all government-authorized forms of violence against the citizens of Cote d’Ivoire and the peacekeepers assigned to the United Nations operations there.”

The Security Council, nevertheless, failed yesterday to unite behind a resolution imposing travel, arms, and commerce sanctions on Mr. Gbagbo’s government. Instead, it delayed action until December 1, when it would convene again to impose such sanctions if mediation attempts fail by then.

China, which is averse to sanctions, asked for more time to allow for some results for mediation attempts led by the president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, who arrived at the Ivory Coast yesterday.

“If you adopt sanctions immediately it would make the situation on the ground more complicated,” said China’s ambassador, Wang Guangya.

The Ivorian Mr. Djangone-Bi, meanwhile, called on the council to start an “independent investigation” into the French action. He denied that government-backed press urged citizens to attack the French in the country. “Without justifying those attacks,” he said, “they were provoked by the actions of France.”