20091221

LONDON (Reuters) - Relief agencies have been hit by the global recession and falling donations, forcing them to cut jobs and to scale back or slow aid projects, and experts warn they may have to take more extreme measures.

The combination of a shortfall in donations, exchange rate pressures, erratic inflation levels overseas and reduced income from interest on reserves has put the squeeze on the aid sector.

Even as markets rebound and the world economy shows signs of recovery, relief groups are braced for tougher times.

Unemployment could rise further and economic growth will bring higher interest rates, cutting donors' disposable income.

"The decline in donations lags behind the worst of the recession," said John Low of the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), a UK charity that helps other charities manage money.

"History suggests there might be more pain to come."

Charitable giving in Britain fell 11 percent in 2008-9 in inflation-adjusted terms, according to UK Giving, a report by CAF and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.

In the United States, donations fell by 5.7 percent in real terms, according to Giving USA's 2008 report - the largest drop since the group began tracking U.S. donations fifty years ago.

20091221

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian mobile operator Mobinil has appointed an independent financial advisor to evaluate France Telecom's offer to buy it, the company said on Sunday.

The firm has appointed Prime Capital to submit an evaluation of the offer before January 5, it said in a statement to the stock exchange.

Mobinil will announce the results of the evaluation before January 9, it said.

The Egyptian mobile firm has been at the centre of a long and often acrimonious dispute between its two main shareholders, Orascom Telecom ORTEq.L and France Telecom.

France Telecom subsidiary Orange Participations is offering 245 Egyptian pounds for each freely traded share in Mobinil. The offer for the shares ends at the close of the trading session on January 14.

20091221

LUANDA (Reuters) - OPEC producers are set to leave output limits unchanged at a meeting on Tuesday, officials from the cartel said, but look likely to call for improved compliance with existing curbs.

"For this meeting -- no change," OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri told reporters. "There is consensus that there is no change."

"If you look at the price, it is very comfortable. If you look at fundamentals, inventories they are on the high side. We have to work to bring them down to reasonable levels."

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has not needed to alter its self-imposed output quotas since slashing supplies late last year to reverse a price crash as the world economy slid into recession.

"If the price had stayed below $70 it might have put the wind up them. But it didn't go there, it is back in the $70s so they will leave well alone," said Neil Atkinson, senior analyst KBC Market Services.

Benchmark U.S. crude traded at $73.50 a barrel on Monday, having slipped briefly below $70 last week.

OPEC has no official price target but several countries, including leading producer Saudi Arabia, have called $75 a fair price for both consumers and producers.

The only issue for ministers is likely to be the degree of adherence with existing supply curbs, which has weakened in recent months, allowing more oil onto the market.

Peacekeepers come under attack in Chad

afrol News, 21 December - The United Nations peacekeepers have helped secure an area of south-eastern Chad where a UN civilian logistics convoy came under attack from unidentified armed men.

The convoy was travelling between the towns of Goz Beida and Koukou Angarana when it was ambushed at gunpoint by the attackers, who commandeered one of the three vehicles in the convoy and fled, according to a press release issued yesterday, by the UN peacekeeping force in Chad and the Central African Republic, known as MINURCAT).

Members of the Chadian Detachement Integre de Securite (DIS) team, which had been accompanying the convoy, then pursued the attackers and recaptured the stolen vehicle. One DIS officer was injured in the ensuing exchange of gunfire.

MINURCAT and the DIS dispatched teams to the scene to secure the area, provide medical assistance and retrieve the vehicles, the mission reported.

MINURCAT forces have trained DIS officers, comprised of Chadian police and gendarmes, to serve as part of a special security force entrusted with providing security to the campsites in eastern Chad that are home to thousands of Chadian internally displaced persons and refugees from the neighbouring Darfur region of Sudan. They are also tasked with helping to protect humanitarian workers operating in the region.

Accusations of sexual abuse in Côte d’Ivoire probed

afrol News, 21 December - The United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) has announced that it is taking all possible measures to investigate allegations that have emerged of sexual abuse and exploitation among its military personnel, some dating back to 2006 and potentially involving minors.

The UN has a zero-tolerance policy against sexual abuse and exploitation by its peacekeepers. UNOCI announced that it has already taken additional preventive measures to reinforce adherence to this policy among the more than 8,300 uniformed personnel from some 50 countries.

In a press release issued on Friday, UNOCI announced that the personnel against whom the allegations have been made have been returned to their country of origin on regular rotation.

The mission had conducted an assessment visit in November to the area where the allegations reportedly occurred, one month after receiving allegations of possible misconduct.

Officials at UN Headquarters have informed authorities in Côte d’Ivoire and asked to carry out an investigation. While the UN can investigate claims, legal action against possible wrongdoing would be handled by the governments contributing personnel to missions.

afrol News, 21 December - The killings of government opponents by Guinean troops in September amounted to "crimes against humanity" and leaders of the military junta should be held responsible, a UN inquiry commission report has said.

The commission said it was able to confirm the identities of 156 people killed or missing during the assault by forces loyal to military junta leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, in an opposition protest that had gathered in a stadium in the capital Conakry on 28 September.

It added that at least 109 women were subjected to "rapes and other sexual violence, including sexual mutilations and sexual slavery" during the mayhem, which sparked worldwide international condemnation.

According to reports, women and girls were carried away to barracks and officers' homes to serve as sex slaves for several days. Others were raped at the scene with batons and knives, then some had rifles forced up their vaginas and fired.

"It is reasonable to conclude that the crimes perpetrated on September 28 and the following days can be described as "crimes against humanity," said the inquiry panel, established by UN chief Ban Ki-moon in late October.

The 60-page report said that there was reasonable ground to presume that Camara, his aide de camp Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite and major Moussa Tieggboro Camara, the minister in charge of special services and the fight against drug trafficking, should be personally held to account before international justice.

The commission, which interviewed 700 witnesses, said the number of "victims of all those violations is probably higher" as the ruling junta in the former French colony in west Africa moved to destroy evidence of the crimes committed in the Conakry stadium.

afrol News, 21 December - The Bannerman Resources Limited has announced it has lodged a mining licence application for its Etango Project in Namibia.

The company said the application was lodged with the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy to enable development of the project. "In conjunction with this application, Bannerman has lodged with the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment conducted by independent environmental consultants A. Speiser Environmental Consultants CC and peer-reviewed by Environmental Resource Management and the Southern African Institute of Environmental Assessment," the company added in its statement today.

Bannerman recently released the results of its Preliminary Feasibility Study on the Etango Project and announced its intention to immediately proceed to a Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS").

"The release of the PFS is a very important milestone for the Company as Bannerman advances the Etango Project towards commencement of construction in 2011 and production in 2013," the statement explained, adding that the company has received a substantial number of investor queries following the announcement of the PFS and, in response, believes it is important to highlight some key points on the viability of the project.

According to the company, the Etango Project is one of the world’s largest undeveloped uranium deposits located in a premier uranium mining jurisdiction, offering long term security of supply for end-users within the timeframe in which there is growing consensus that supply will be constrained as the nuclear renaissance gathers momentum.

afrol News, 21 December - The government of Malawi has send an emergency appeal following a series of earthquakes in the northern district of Karonga.

The country's disaster authority issued the appeal yesterday following another tremoer which reportedly killed at least three people injuring a dozen others.

“We immediately need family tents so that the families are not separated. We also immediately need maize flour, soya for children, salt, beans, cooking oil, blankets, kitchen utensils, plastic sheets, poles for temporary houses and jerry cans,” Lilian Ng’oma, the Commissioner of the disaster management authority said in the emergency appeal.

The Commissioner was also reported in the local media saying well wishers and other donor organisations should help with bigger tents so that children whose schools have been affected can be kept at school.

Last week the country's president Bingu wa Mutharika, already opened the donations fund, but the country was yet to make further assessment of the situation before a national dister could be declared.

Government officials have said some 6,000 people have been affected by the quakes, with the last one said to have measured 6.2 on the Richter scale.

The Sunday earthquake was the fourth to hit the northern district since early December.

20091221

GENEVA (Reuters) - Leaders of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army must be brought to justice for carrying attacks of deliberate brutality in neighbouring Sudan and Congo, the top U.N. human rights official said on Monday.

Launching two reports on investigations into a series of assaults on civilians, including babies, in the past year in the African neighbours, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said it was critical that LRA leaders be tried in international court for what may be crimes against humanity.

"The brutality employed during the attacks was consistent, deliberate and egregious," she said.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague in 2005 issued war crimes warrants for LRA Commander-In-Chief Joseph Kony and other senior LRA commanders, but they remain in hiding.

Both reports, produced by Pillay's office, called for cooperation with the ICC, including from governments in the region, in the arrest and surrender the LRA leaders accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

"The attacks have left a legacy of trauma, both individual and collective, and those affected continue to live in fear of their lives," Pillay said, stressing that security forces in Congo were ill-equipped to protect civilians from roving bands of Ugandan fighters.

Rapes, killings, lootings and other abuses led to mass displacement in southern Sudan and eroded confidence in the police and army in the oil-producing region that was still recovering from more than two decades of civil war, said Pillay, a former U.N. war crimes judge from South Africa.

In the U.N. report on Congo, a producer of gold, coffee, sugar and palm oil, investigators detailed synchronised LRA attacks, mutilations and rapes that killed at least 1,200 people between September 2008 and June 2009.

20091221

TINDOUF, Algeria (Reuters) - A hunger strike by a Western Saharan independence activist shows the urgent need for the world to intervene to stop Moroccan human rights abuses, the head of the territory's Polisario independence movement said.

Aminatou Haidar's month-long hunger strike in a Spanish airport focussed international attention on Western Sahara's conflict with Morocco in a way rarely seen since Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony nearly 35 years ago.

The 43-year-old mother-of-two stopped eating in protest at Morocco's refusal to let her into the country unless she declared her loyalty to the king. Rabat let her return home after the United States, Spain and other countries intervened.

"Her ... hunger strike has shed light on our struggle and has put the Western Sahara issue back at the top of the international agenda," Polisario leader Mohamed Abdelaziz told Reuters at his headquarters in Algeria, where the movement has been based since fleeing Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara.

"Morocco should ... stop its campaign against our people inside the occupied territories," he said.

"We urge the United Nations to set up a mechanism to protect our people's human rights ... and to report on it as long as the conflict is unresolved."

A tract of desert the size of Britain which has lucrative phosphate reserves and potentially offshore oil, Western Sahara is the scene of Africa's longest-running territorial dispute.

Europe and the United States say their worry is that the conflict, because it has soured relations between Morocco and Algeria, is preventing the two neighbours from working together to contain Islamist violence.

20091221

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina has formally rejected internationally brokered power-sharing deals and said any attempt by the opposition to form a parliament this week would be illegal.

Rajoelina named an army colonel as his new prime minister on Sunday after months of power-sharing talks to end nearly a year of instability on the Indian Ocean island collapsed.

In a statement published late on Sunday night, Rajoelina said Friday's presidential decree firing his prime minister annulled an earlier decree signed in September ratifying peace accords signed in Mozambique and Ethiopia.

The 35-year-old instigator of a coup in March said the posts of two co-presidents --created under the terms of a deal reached in the Ethiopian capital-- and that of speaker of parliament were therefore scrapped.

"Consequently, the (opposition's) notice of meeting for parliament to convene is illegal," said the statement.

Political turmoil has convulsed Madagascar after repeated large-scale protests by Rajoelina's supporters and the backing of dissident troops ended with the overthrow of former President Marc Ravalomanana.

Rajoelina, Ravalomanana, and two other ex-leaders, Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy have since squabbled for months over who should hold which top jobs in a consensus government.

Opposition leaders on the world's fourth largest island, eyed by foreign investors for its vast oil and mineral resources, have said they will form a unity government before the Christmas period. They also plan to recall parliament.

20091221

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, announced results on Monday of a controversial election for its governing body, with analysts saying the group's old guard won the bulk of seats.

Some senior members said the elections were illegitimate because they violated the Brotherhood's internal rules. Most members of the group's shura, the council responsible for mapping policies, nonetheless agreed to go ahead.

"The opinion of the majority was that the elections to the guidance bureau be carried out now," outgoing leader Mahdi Akef said in a statement on the Brotherhood's website.

The results signalled an end to the reformist trend within the Brotherhood, political analyst Khalil El Anani said.

"These results indicate an internal coup d'etat against the reformist camp of the Brotherhood," he told Reuters. "Most of the new members are over 50 years old and there is no representation of Brotherhood's youth."

The names of those who won seats on the 16-member guidance bureau were listed on the Brotherhood's official website.

The elections were the first for the bureau in 14 years. The 1995 elections instigated a government crackdown and the first military trial for the Brotherhood during the rule of President Hosni Mubarak, Anani said.

Elections were also held late last week for the Brotherhood's new leader, but results have not yet been announced.

The Brotherhood is officially banned by Egypt's government, forcing supporters to contest elections as independents.

20091221

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's ruling party accused southern authorities of election fraud on Monday after figures showed five southern states had managed to sign up more than 100 percent of their estimated electorate in a voter count.

South Sudanese officials dismissed the accusations saying official estimates of the electorate were inaccurate because they were based on a faulty census.

Political tensions are already high in the oil-producing country ahead of national elections, due in April, and a contentious referendum on southern independence in January 2011.

South Sudan secured its own semi-autonomous government in a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war.

Some analysts had warned Sudan would struggle to organise the ballots across its vast territory, and many voters in remote areas of the underdeveloped south might be left out.

Figures seen by Reuters showed elections staff in south Sudan's Unity state collected the names of 522,196 voters during a six-week registration exercise, almost twice estimates of the state's entire electorate, according to an earlier census.

Five other states -- Warap, Lakes, Northern and Western Bahr el Ghazal in south Sudan, and Southern Kordofan in north Sudan -- also signed up between 107 and 140 per cent of their estimated electorates, according to the document compiled by the country's National Elections Commission.

Figures published by the Rift Valley Institute showed southern regions only managed to register between 1 and 23 per cent of their total populations in previous elections.

20091221

KAMPALA (Reuters) - As Ugandan MPs debate anti-gay legislation and world Christian leaders weigh in, the gay community in Kampala awaits a bill it says will only formalise the persecution it feels every day.

"I have been arrested by police a number of times, often on flimsy charges just because of my homosexual lifestyle," said David Kato, who lives as an openly gay man in Kampala.

"The prospect of living under this law is scary. Certainly all my life and plans will be ruined because once it's passed I will immediately have to flee the country," Kato said. "Obviously if I don't I will be arrested and imprisoned."

While Uganda has become a favourite of western governments for its reforms and economic growth since 1986, rights groups have criticised President Yoweri Museveni for cracking down on opposition, media and civil society.

The president has been quoted in local media saying homosexuality is a Western import, joining continental religious leaders who believe it is un-African.

The draft Anti-Homosexuality Bill is part of a growing campaign against gays in Uganda, rights groups say. Critics say the aim is to divert attention from corruption and other political issues ahead of the 2011 national vote.

But the bill's author, ruling party member David Bahati, says the legislation promotes family values. "Homosexuality is not part of the human rights we believe in," he said.

20091221

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Aid workers in Ethiopia will investigate how foreign humanitarian relief supplies are delivered after opposition political parties alleged that their members were being denied food ahead of elections in May.

A coalition of eight opposition parties called Medrek, or the Forum, accuses some officials of only allowing ruling party members to benefit from a long running food-for-work programme that helps more than seven million Ethiopians survive.

The authorities have denied the allegations by Medrek, which analysts view as the most potent threat at the ballot box to the almost 20-year-old government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

"A number of foreign aid organisations are going to examine the system here together," a senior aid official based in Addis Ababa, who did not want to be named, told Reuters.

Foreign charities rarely criticise the government in public because their staff have been expelled from the country and barred from certain areas. The authorities say 6.2 million Ethiopians will need emergency food this year -- on top of the more than seven million on the food-for-work scheme.

Aid workers would not confirm which agencies would be involved in the probe, but said that the aid departments of some Western donor governments would take part. The World Bank is the main funder of the food-for-work scheme -- known as the safety net programme -- followed by Britain and the United States.

The senior aid official said donors believed the problems were at a regional level, with local officials settling scores.

"But, at the moment, we don't believe it's sanctioned at the highest levels of government," the senior official said.

East Africa records highest number of new plant species

afrol News, 21 December - Canopy giants and miniature fungi are among 250 new species discovered in Kew’s 250th anniversary year report.

The report said giant rainforest trees, rare and beautiful orchids, spectacular palms, minute fungi, wild coffees and an ancient aquatic plant are among more than 250 new plant and fungi species discovered and described by botanists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in this, the botanical organisation’s 250th anniversary year.

The new species, according to the botanists, come from a wide-range of fascinating locations including Brazil, Cameroon, East Africa, Madagascar, Borneo and New Guinea. Nearly a third are believed to be in danger of extinction.

“These new discoveries highlight the fact that there is so much of the plant world yet to be discovered and documented. Without knowing what’s out there and where it occurs, we have no scientific basis for effective conservation. It is vital that these areas of botanical science are adequately funded and supported.

“As part of our Breathing Planet Programme we are committed to accelerating the discovery and classification of plant diversity, and finding solutions for their conservation,” said the botanists.

Professor David Mabberley, Keeper of the Herbarium, Library, Art and Archives adds, “Achievements like this year’s bumper crop of new species discoveries are only possible because of Kew’s international collaborative network. Successful research in the field and Herbarium depends on our in-country partnerships. We are currently working with 100 countries throughout the world.”

Examples of the new discoveries include Canopy Giants from the rainforests of Cameroon while the smallest species on this year’s new species list are wood-rotting fungi, which are less than a millimeter thick and cover their hosts like a lick of paint.

By 21 December 2009, the total number of new plant and fungi species either published or sent for publication by botanists in the Herbarium is 292, from 1 January 2009). On average the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and its partners discover and describe 200 new species a year.

The highest numbers of new species come from Eastern Africa and tropical southern Africa - more than 100, with 67 from Tanzania alone, Madagascar (32), and Borneo (62) the report outlined.

afrol News, 21 December - The Security Council has today called on the government of the Central African Republic (CAR) to ensure a speedy and inclusive political dialogue and swift security sector reform as the conflict-plagued country prepares for elections in 2010, further urging the world community to provide necessary support.

Security reform “is a crucial element for the peace-building process in the Central African Republic and for addressing widespread impunity and increasing respect for human rights,” the 15-member body said in a statement read out by its president for December, Ambassador Michel Kafando of Burkina Faso.

The statement followed a warning last week from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative in CAR, Sahle-Work Zewde, that international assistance is vital to prevent the impoverished country from sliding back into political crisis and potential new fighting as it prepares for elections after a decade of sporadic conflict between government and rebel forces.

It called on the government to carry out without delay a transparent and accountable disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) process for former fighters, ensuring the completion of disarmament and demobilization phase before the elections.

“In these efforts, transparent funding and coordination of reintegration programs is critical to the program’s long-term success,” it said, urging the international community to provide timely and adequate support to the process.

The Council also strongly condemned the ongoing attacks in CAR by the rebel Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and “calls for the countries of the region and the United Nations missions to coordinate and enhance information-sharing regarding the threat posed by the LRA to the population.”

Demanding that the government and all political stakeholders “ensure free, fair, transparent and credible preparation and conduct” of the elections, it called on “the Government, the United Nations and other stakeholders to support timely election preparation with adequate resources.”

“Only a clear course of action by the international and regional actors would help the CAR to shift from conflict to a post-conflict country,” Ms Zewde told the Council last week, presenting Mr Ban’s latest report on the country.

In the report, Mr Ban also stressed the critical need for speedy disarmament and demobilisation. “Any further delay in starting the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme may not only negatively affect the holding of elections as scheduled, but could also lead to the frustration of the ex-combatants waiting for disarmament, who may be forced to return to violence,” he wrote.

20091221

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian officials confirmed on Monday that Egypt is building an underground steel barrier next to its border with Gaza, where Palestinians have built tunnels to smuggle in goods to beat an Israeli blockade.

The construction could create tension with Palestinians at a time when Egypt is mediating to finalise a swap of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is being held by Palestinians in Gaza.

Egypt was criticised in the Arab world and in Arab media for not taking a stronger position against Israel's attack on Gaza last year. During the attack, Israel bombed sites along Egypt's border, saying it sought to destroy Palestinian smuggling tunnels.

Government workers have begun placing steel tubes 50 centimetres in diameter and 20 metres long one above the other, the Egyptian security officials said.

Eyewitness from Rafah and Gaza said on Sunday they could see workers attaching short tubes end-to-end then placing them deep into the ground as a single long tube. It was not clear how deep the barrier would extend.

Some politicians in Cairo and Gaza believe the barrier is designed to tighten a blockade clamped around Gaza by Israel. Gaza residents have built hundreds of tunnels under the border to smuggle basic goods into the territory.

Israelis say the tunnels are also used to smuggle in weapons. Many have remained open and new ones are constantly being dug despite Israeli aerial bombardment.

The security sources said the barrier is designed to protect the Egyptian border against smuggling operations, while Egypt's Foreign Ministry said it had no official statement on the work.

Egypt and Germany have been mediating the prisoner exchange, and a planned visit by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to Cairo later on Monday has fuelled speculation a deal may be close.

20091221

PARIS (Reuters) - Guinea's junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara bears direct responsibility for the September 28 killings by security forces of more than 150 pro-democracy marchers, the French daily Le Monde quoted a U.N. inquiry as saying on Monday.

Guinea, the world's top exporter of bauxite and a pivotal country for the security of West Africa, has been on the brink of chaos since the massacre and a botched assassination attempt against Camara on December 3 by his former aide de camp.

Camara, who has not been seen in public since he was rushed to Morocco for medical treatment after the attempt on his life, could face international prosecution for crimes against humanity if the conclusions are confirmed.

"The commission considers there are sufficient grounds for presuming direct criminal responsibility by President Moussa Dadis Camara," Le Monde's website said, quoting the report which was delivered to the U.N. Security Council and African regional bodies at the weekend.

It asked that the International Criminal Court to take action against Camara and members of his entourage for crimes against humanity that involved mass killings, rape and sexual mutilations of opposition supporters, Le Monde said.

Guinean Communications Minister Idriss Cherif told Reuters he had not studied the report but complained of a "procedural fault in the manner in which the report has been communicated".

"I get the impression people want to speed things up as if it were a race against the clock. It is not normal," Cherif said by telephone.

Camara's absence from Guinea 18 days after suffering head injuries described by the junta as superficial has aroused speculation that his condition is worse than thought and that he is under Western-backed pressure to go into exile.

"He is still in hospital for his treatment. We have nothing more to say for now," Moroccan Foreign Minister Taief Fassi Fihri told Reuters in Rabat.

ANTANANARIVO, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Madagascar's transitional government president Andry Rajoelina has named Col. Albert Camille Vital prime minister to counter the offensives of the three rival political camps led by former rulers of the Indian Ocean island state.

The military officer, who was named on Sunday, comes from the south of Madagascar. Albert, 57, a native of Tulear, graduated in an ex-Soviet institution with a degree in civil-engineering. He was the president of Tulear's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the owner of a local security firm before his latest appointment.

Between 1998 and 2001, he was the head of the Tulear's first military body called the regional military No. 5. He resigned from the position after his candidacy was rejected for the town council.

According to Midi, a local French newspaper, this new appointment has the objective of countering the actions of the three camps in the run-up to the legislative elections set for March 2010.

The newspaper also pointed out that the current ministers will continue serving in their positions until the formation of a new government.

The new prime minister already attended his first cabinet meeting on Sunday.

The Express, another French newspaper which was the first to reveal the appointment of Col. Albert, said the man had shown determination to lead his government and that he was ready to assume his responsibilities to preserve the national security and prepare for the legislative elections.

However, the rival camps contested the new appointment, saying this decision was illegal. In a joint statement, the three former presidents declared a transition led by Rajoelina and his team as illegal. They said they do not recognize his power.

The three camps vowed to go ahead with a lineup envisaged by the Maputo and Addis Ababa agreements, insisting on the installation of a consensus government and the holding of the preliminary meeting of the Superior Transitional Council, which is scheduled for Tuesday.

Tensions are escalating over the leadership of the transitional period and the sharing of government posts.

The four sides had previously agreed to form a transitional government leading to a presidential vote, before Rajoelina's leading role in the transition was strongly rejected by former president Marc Ravalomanana, who was ousted in March after months of anti-government turmoil considered as a coup.

The three camps which also include former presidents Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy have their own choices of government officials against the offer by Rajoelina. The appointment of the new premier came in the culmination of months of power struggle.