PARIS, June 4 (Reuters) - A French court sentenced an Ivory Coast man to four years in jail on Wednesday for plotting from France in 2003 to stage a coup in his home country and assassinate President Laurent Gbagbo.

Ibrahim Coulibaly, who is on the run and was tried in absentia, has denied involvement in the failed plot to fire rockets at Gbagbo's vehicle.

Nicknamed "IB" at home, Coulibaly is well-known for his role in a 1999 coup in the former French colony that brought General Robert Guei to power.

A criminal court in Paris said Coulibaly played a leading role in a 2003 plot to topple Gbagbo, and convicted him under new anti-mercenary legislation that came into force in France just before the events.

Prison terms of up to 30 months were given to eight other men who acted as middlemen in the coup plot. Four other defendants, all suspected mercenaries, were discharged because they did not have time to take any action.

The plot occurred at a time of turmoil in Ivory Coast.

The world's top cocoa grower has been divided into a rebel north and government-controlled south since a failed coup in September 2002 triggered a brief war that lasted into 2003.

French peacekeepers have manned a buffer zone along the front line between the two sides for most of the last five years. They withdrew from most of their outposts following a March 2007 peace deal. (Reporting by Thierry Leveque, writing by Tamora Vidaillet, editing by Estelle Shirbon)

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