Coup leaders in Mali have agreed to hand over and allow a transition to civilian rule, as part of a deal struck with regional bloc, ECOWAS.
In return, the bloc will lift trade and economic sanctions and grant amnesty to the ruling junta, mediators said.
The move came after Tuareg rebels in the north declared independence of territory they call Azawad.
The rebels seized the area after a coup two weeks ago plunged the West African nation into political crisis.
Under the terms of transition plan, military rulers will cede power to the parliamentary speaker, Diouncounda Traore, who as interim president will oversee a timetable for elections.
Once sworn in, Mr Traore would have 40 days to organise elections, the five-page agreement says.
After four days of a total economic embargo, the announcement will certainly come as a relief for the Malian population.
The agreement says that ECOWAS will immediately prepare for the lifting of the tough sanctions it imposed on Mali earlier this week.
The agreement doesn’t specify when Captain Amadou Sanogo will hand over power to the head of the national assembly.
However, Tuareg-led rebels have declared independence for a vast land of lawlessness and confusion from which at least half the population, already impoverished, has fled either south or into neighbouring countries.
Meanwhile, the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS’) Commission has denounced and described as null, void and of no effect the declaration of independence by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) for the north of Mali.
The MNLA had declared the independence after capturing Mali’s Northern Tuareg Region from the government.
In a swift reaction, the President of the ECOWAS’ commission, Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo, said the commission wished to remind all the armed groups in the north of Mali that Mali was one and indivisible entity.
He maintained that ECOWAS would take all necessary measures, including the use of force, to ensure the territorial integrity of the country.
The statement reads, "The commission wishes to remind all the armed groups in the North of Mali that Mali is one and indivisible entity
"ECOWAS wishes to reaffirm its commitment to the unity and territorial integrity of Mali, and to put all on guard against any temptation to proclaim any part of Mali as a sovereign state, as it will never recognize any such state."
