* Ivorian troops alleged to have attacked Yopougon church
* U.N. seeking clarity on report of mass grave
* Gbagbo lawyers turned away at airport
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ABIDJAN/GENEVA, May 6 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast troops seeking to round up militia fighters in Abidjan this week may have attacked a church housing 2,500 displaced people, the United Nations said on Friday, adding it was also checking reports of a mass grave nearby.
The investigation could add to pressure on new President Alassane Ouattara, whose forces have been accused of rape, looting and executions during an offensive in March and April to oust former leader Laurent Gbagbo.
"Our staff in Cote d&${esc.hash}39;Ivoire are investigating reports of human rights violations in Yopougon district of Abidjan committed allegedly by both the FRCI (Ivorian army) and the pro-Gbagbo militiamen who have been holding out in that district," U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.
"They are particularly looking at an attack against a Baptist church allegedly by FRCI forces earlier in the week," he said, without giving details.
About 2,500 displaced people had sought refuge in the church another U.N. official said, adding that 54 people had been taken away from the church and emergency medical supplies stored there were looted.
Colville said U.N. staff were investigating reports of a mass grave in the district, where pro-Gbagbo gunmen made a last stand after Gbagbo was arrested last month.
A spokesman for Ivory Coast&${esc.hash}39;s armed forces said on Thursday troops had recaptured a naval base from the remnants of the militia, leaving them no place from which to launch attacks, and eliminating the last major pocket of resistance.
DOZENS OF BODIES
The Red Cross said this week its staff had recovered dozens of bodies from Yopougon of people killed in recent and old fighting there, and had also discovered a field in which residents said up to 30 bodies had been buried.
The United Nations did not confirm this was the mass grave.
Gbagbo, who had led the country since 2000, refused to step down after a presidential election in November which he was judged to have lost, leading to all-out conflict in which thousands were killed and more than a million displaced.
Ouattara has launched an investigation into Gbagbo and his inner circle over alleged human rights abuses during the conflict, which reopened the wounds of a civil war in 2002 and 2003, even as his own forces, a rag-tag collection of former rebels, have been accused by rights groups of their own abuses.
Three Paris-based lawyers representing Gbagbo said they sought to enter Ivory Coast on Friday to attend Gbagbo&${esc.hash}39;s scheduled hearing in the northern town of Korhogo but had been forced to return to France when two of them had their visas refused at Abidjan airport.
"The three lawyers were turned away in circumstances that resembled a trap," a statement issued by Paris lawyer firm Bourthoumieux said on behalf of the three lawyers, Jacques Verges, Lucie Bourthoumieux and Marcel Ceccaldi.
Ivory Coast, the world&${esc.hash}39;s biggest cocoa producing country, is struggling to revive its conflict-shattered economy.
Cocoa exports were expected to resume at the weekend after a halt of more than three months and the country&${esc.hash}39;s acting agriculture minister said he did not expect the crisis to have reduced this year&${esc.hash}39;s crop. [ID:nLDE7450ZP] (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Mark John in Dakar, and Ange Aboa in Abidjan; writing by Richard Valdmanis; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
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