ANTANANARIVO, April 15 (Xinhua) -- The president of the Highest Transitional Authority in Madagascar (HAT), Andry Rajoelina, vows to form an interim body and an electoral commission in a new bid to end the Indian Ocean island country's year-long crisis.

On state television, Rajoelina said late Wednesday he would disband his government and form an interim governing body if talks with former president Marc Ravalomanana in South Africa turned out successful.

Rajoelina made the remarks after a roadmap to end the crisis was proposed recently by France, South Africa and the Southern African Development Community.

He said the new proposal envisions elections in the shortest possible time. "Now the main preoccupation is the forming of a government of national unity," he declared.

The rival camps including supporters of Ravalomanana reached Maputo and Addis Ababa agreements last year months after Rajoelina replaced Ravalomanana with the backing of the military. But they failed to carry them out afterwards with Ravalomanana challenging Rajoelina's role to head the transition leading to an election.
After the proposal of the new roadmap by the French secretary of state in charge of cooperation, Alain Joyandet, Rajoelina sent a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy to confirm acceptance. Ravalomanana also accepted the idea in his letter.

"If it is necessary to sign an agreement to confirm the entry of Ravalomanana's group into this government of national unity, we shall proceed with the signing," Rajoelina declared.

As for the two other groupings respectively led by former presidents Didier Ratsiraka and Zafy Albert, the HAT leader promised that they would not be isolated from the government of national unity.

"We need to close the transitional period and move towards the organization of elections. We must learn some lessons from the one- year crisis. I believe that the Madagascan people have the wisdom necessary to move on into the Fourth Republic," he said.

But Rajoelina made it clear that it is not yet time for Ravalomanana to come back to Madagascar. "The timing is not right for him," he said. Ravalomanana went in exile abroad after ousted in March 2009. He is currently in South Africa.

Rajoelina also stressed the need set up a National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) in anticipation of the upcoming presidential elections.

He recalled a national convention held on March 4-5, which recommended the forming of CENI, the drafting of new electoral code and the formation of a government of national unity.

He said CENI would be the very first one in 50 years of the country's independence, adding CENI would guarantee transparency of the elections.

The HAT leader talked about the new approach after last week's dismissal of the minister in charge of the armed forces, general Noel Rakotonandrasa.
Rajoelina said the decision will not weaken the government. "I can assure you that the army is still united despite various attempts to divide them," he said, accusing some political forces of trying to bribe certain military officers.

"I do not think that we should use the army to take power," he said.

Rakotonandrasa was the main actor in the process of power transfer to Rajoelina a year ago, which is considered unconstitutional and even a coup.

Last month, the African Union imposed sanctions on Rajoelina and 108 other officials for failing to form a new government with the other three camps.

The military seems to lose patient with the crisis lingering on and has developed instability since the beginning of the year.

On Monday, the chief of general staff, Bruno Razafindrakoto, called on the HAT to give clear guidelines on how to end the crisis.

He made the call after a meeting in the capital Antananarivo between Rajoelina and senior officers of the army.

During his meeting with army officers, Rajoelina urged continued support from the military for a consensual solution to the crisis.