Mali junta to stand down under deal with W. African bloc

World powers on Saturday welcomed the Mali military junta's decision to step aside ahead of elections, as the man named to handle the transition flew back into the country. But there was fresh international condemnation of a declaration of independence by Tuareg rebels who have seized control of the north of the country. The junior officers who seized power last month have agreed with West African bloc ECOWAS to give up power in return for an amnesty deal and a lifting of sanctions that the regional body had imposed on landlocked Mali. The deal, brokered late on Friday, came amid growing concern at the situation in northern Mali, which is now torn between the Tuareg rebels who have declared independence and Islamists determined to impose sharia law. The junta agreed to a timetable for a return to constitutional rule and elections following their March 22 overthrow of President Amadou Toumani Toure, a power grab that sparked international condemnation. Under the agreement, the new interim president will be the speaker of parliament Dioncounda Traore, ruling with a transitional government until elections are held.He flew into Mali on Saturday and was quick to praise the junta's decision to return the country to democracy. "I would like to congratulate these young officers who, after all, have had the wisdom and intelligence to understand that today, our country needs unity...," he told Mali state television ORTM. "Our country needs its army to recover the whole of its territory," he added. Also in Bamako, Ivorian minister Adama Bictogo read out a statement from Ivorian leader Alassane Ouattara, who currently heads up ECOWAS -- the Economic Community of West African States. Ouattara's statement confirmed the decision to immediately lift sanctions following the transition deal. He thanked the international community, particularly France and the United States, for their help during the crisis. Earlier Saturday, the African Union welcomed the deal, calling on all those involved to implement it in good faith. And a statement from European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she had called Ouattara, to congratulate him on the agreement. Friday's deal came hours after Tuareg rebels had unilaterally declared independence in the north. The United States, European Union and African states all quickly rejected the declaration by the desert nomads' secular National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). And the radical Islamist group Ansar Dine, which fought alongside the MNLA before installing sharia law in parts of the north, also gave the idea short shrift. Ansar Dine military chief Omar Hamaha said in a video viewed by AFP: "We are against rebellions. We are against independence. We are against revolutions, not in the name of Islam." The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation rejected the Tuareg bid for independence in a statement issued Saturday from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu "firmly condemned this act of separatism" in the statement, while welcoming the military junta's decision to give up power. Mali is a member of the 57-member pan-Muslim body. ECOWAS on Monday imposed a total embargo on Mali, a country of 15 million people, closing all borders except for humanitarian aid, denying access to ECOWAS ports, and freezing Malian bank accounts. Mediator Djibril Bassole, Burkina Faso's foreign minister, said President Toure, who has not been seen since the coup, should be able to live where he wants under army protection. The accord states that Traore, as interim president, will have the task of organising a presidential election within 40 days, though given the "exceptional circumstances", this may be delayed. Amnesty International has warned that northern Mali -- where more than 200,000 people have been displaced by the fighting since mid-January -- was on the brink of a "major humanitarian disaster". The three northern towns of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu had suffered looting, abductions and chaos since they were occupied late last week. "All the food and medicine stored by major aid agencies has been looted and most of the aid workers have fled," said Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty's researcher on West Africa. "The population is at imminent risk of severe food and medical shortages that could lead to many casualties, especially among women and children who are less able to fend for themselves." In the north meanwhile, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, one of the leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, and several other Islamists arrived in Gao overnight, sources told AFP. "They did not hide their identity," said a witness, the son of the imam of a Gao mosque. "They said they would do everything to foster agreements between Muslims in northern Mali." A Malian security official said Belmokhtar and his group also went to the Algerian consulate, but did not elaborate. Algeria has said it has no news of its seven diplomats kidnapped, reportedly by Ansar Dine, in Gao after its fall a week ago. Their families were repatriated safely on Friday.