The United Nations has certified election results, which gave Mr. Ouattara a nearly nine-point winning margin, and virtually all foreign governments have accepted them. The United Nations has recognized a new ambassador from Ivory Coast, appointed by Mr. Ouattara. Mr. Gbagbo, however, has insisted that hundreds of thousands of votes in the north of this divided country were fraudulent. A close ally of his on Ivory Coast’s constitutional council declared Mr. Gbagbo the winner.

Perhaps reflecting the lack of movement, those who took part in Monday’s discussions were unusually tight-lipped. “We’re shuttling between the two leaders,” said James Victor Gbeho, president of the Ecowas Commission, a regional grouping of West African states, on Monday night. “We’re traveling from one to the other. I can’t say anything about them.”

“Later, later,” said Mr. Boni, the Benin president, as he prepared for yet another visit to Mr. Gbagbo. The president of Sierra Leone, Mr. Koroma, also refused all comment.

Ecowas has threatened to use military force to remove Mr. Gbagbo if he did not relent. Last week, defense chiefs from some of the 15 nations in the group held a planning session in Nigeria.

There has been no sign that diplomacy would change Mr. Gbagbo’s mind. On Monday night, state television broadcast an extensive interview with him in which he dismissed United Nations declarations chastising him, playing on an anti-French, nationalist note that has benefited him politically. “All the U.N. resolutions, it’s France that wrote the drafts,” Mr. Gbagbo told the interviewer.

He has tried to kick out the United Nations peacekeeping force here, and mobs supporting him have attacked United Nations patrols. On Monday night, Mr. Gbagbo refused to allow United Nations soldiers to escort the visiting heads of state as they came to see him for a last, unsuccessful discussion.

Mr. Gbagbo’s refusal to budge has placed the burden of action on the international community, which risks a loss of credibility if Mr. Gbagbo remains in place. But diplomats are also worried about causing more conflict in the country, which remains divided after a 2002 civil war.

“The stalemate continues,” said a senior Western official here. “Gbagbo seems insistent on staying on, regardless of the consequences for him and his country.”