20110218
reuters

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar urged an airline expected to carry exiled leader Marc Ravalomanana back to the Indian Ocean island on Saturday to block his departure for security reasons, a senior civil aviation source said on Friday.

Ravalomanana fled to South Africa two years ago when dissident troops swung behind popular street protests against his perceived autocratic leadership, triggering a bitter leadership dispute.

"On a ministerial order, we have told the (airline) company that it was preferred this person (Ravalomanana) did not board the aircraft for security reasons," the source, who did not identify the airline, told Reuters.

No plans were in place to close the capital Antananarivo's international Ivato airport, the source added.

Ravalomanana said this week he wanted to help Madagascar, the world's largest vanilla producer, return to democracy.

But political analysts say his re-emergence on the national political scene might escalate tension amid international efforts to break the impasse on the formation of a unity government.

Ravalomanana's overthrow sparked a political crisis that has hammered the cobalt- and nickel-producing island's economy and seen government spending fall dramatically after donors froze aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

President Andry Rajoelina, who was lifted into power by the 2009 protests, wants Ravalomanana to serve a life jail sentence that was handed down in absentia for the killing of 30 protesters by the ex-leader's presidential guard, if he returns.