LOME, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe decided on Thursday through a decree arrived at in the cabinet meeting that the planned presidential elections will be held on March 4 instead of Feb. 28, according to an official communique.

Under the decree, the election campaign period will run from Feb. 16 to March 2.

The communique said these decisions were taken after "consultations" between the Togolese head of state and the facilitator in the inter-Togolese dialogue, Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore.

The decisions could be justified by "the need to seek lasting consensus and maintaining a peaceful climate throughout the entire electoral process," the text added.

These changes come in the wake of a meeting in Burkina Faso on Feb. 9 between the presidential camp and the members of the opposition. The meeting called for an assessment of the electoral process after the electoral lists review operations.

According to the communique, a summary of actions of the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) showed that its activities were "in progress and in conformity to the electoral timetable" that was being followed until then.

The elections will mark the end of the first term of Gnassingbe who came to power after a hotly contested vote in April 2005 following the death of general Gnassingbe Eyadema, his father, on Feb. 5, 2005.

He will face six Togolese opposition candidates including a female candidate.