Ouagadougou:
Burkina Faso opposition and civil society groups agreed Sunday on the outlines of a transitional government aimed at new elections in a year, setting up delicate negotiations with the military regime in charge after Blaise Compaore's ouster.
The approval of a transition blueprint comes ahead of Monday's visit by the African Union chairman and with the military authorities under international pressure to hand over to a civilian government.
Discussions will now be held with the military regime to hammer out details.
Under the plan, the transition ahead of elections in November 2015 would include a civilian president, a government with 25 ministers and a 90-member parliament.
Participants in the meeting said the proposal allocates 10 parliament seats each to the army and to Compaore's party. The opposition would be allocated 40 seats and civil society representatives 30.
The interim president and members of the government would not be allowed to run in next year's elections under the plan, but parliament members could.
A major question yet to be decided is who will serve as interim president.
"We're going to discuss it together," Luc Marius Ibriga, an official with the commission that put together the proposal approved Sunday, said of the plan.
"The military provided us with a document. We deliberated while taking into account the details of the document."
Talks on forming a transition government in the west African nation began Saturday with the army at first declining to join.
Around 60 representatives of Burkina Faso's political parties and civil society met in the capital Ouagadougou to hammer out a handover plan, after Compaore fled on October 31 following an uprising against his bid to revise the constitution and extend his 27-year rule.
The army, who named Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida to head the country, had first refused to take part in the talks. They later sent a delegation led by Zida's right-hand man, Colonel August Denise Barry, who made a brief appearance at the discussions.
Barry told the conference that the army has no intention of holding on to power, saying that "things can no longer be like before", alluding to the country's history of military coups, according to civilian delegates.
Earlier, Zida had told a delegation from the talks that members of Compaore's political party should also be included in the discussions, which the other parties have so far refused to allow.
"For the purpose of reconciliation and reconstruction, one cannot exclude a party of the people," Zida said, according to one of the delegates.
The army's power grab has attracted international condemnation and threats of sanctions from the African Union unless it hands over power within two weeks.
Bisa Williams, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, reiterated calls for a democratic transition after talks Saturday with Zida in the capital.
"We're counting on respect for the (army's) promise to put in place a democratic transition government which is led by a civilian," Williams said.
- Compaore speaks out -
Washington and Paris have been pressuring the military to quickly carry out elections.
The civilian groups had already agreed that the transition should last one year and that it should be led by a civilian before presidential and legislative elections take place by November 2015.
Transition plans were due to be presented Monday to African Union chief Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz when the Mauritanian president visits Ouagadougou to keep up pressure on the military to hand over power.
From his exile in neighbouring Ivory Coast, Compaore meanwhile accused the opposition of plotting a coup with the army, in an interview published Saturday.
"We knew for a long time that part of the opposition was working with the army. Their aim: to prepare a coup d'etat," Compaore told Jeune Afrique magazine.
"They wanted me to leave. I left. History will tell us if they were right," said the 63-year-old, who first took power in a 1987 coup.
As for Zida, Compaore said the lieutenant colonel was in a position that he would "not wish for his worst enemy".
In a sign of the shockwaves that events in the country have sent across west Africa, the leaders of Equatorial Guinea -- ruled since 1979 by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema -- have reportedly banned the media there from mentioning the revolt.
A journalist at the state broadcaster, who asked not to be named, told AFP that staff were ordered not to report the fall of Compaore.
The approval of a transition blueprint comes ahead of Monday's visit by the African Union chairman and with the military authorities under international pressure to hand over to a civilian government.
Discussions will now be held with the military regime to hammer out details.
Under the plan, the transition ahead of elections in November 2015 would include a civilian president, a government with 25 ministers and a 90-member parliament.
Participants in the meeting said the proposal allocates 10 parliament seats each to the army and to Compaore's party. The opposition would be allocated 40 seats and civil society representatives 30.
The interim president and members of the government would not be allowed to run in next year's elections under the plan, but parliament members could.
A major question yet to be decided is who will serve as interim president.
"We're going to discuss it together," Luc Marius Ibriga, an official with the commission that put together the proposal approved Sunday, said of the plan.
"The military provided us with a document. We deliberated while taking into account the details of the document."
Talks on forming a transition government in the west African nation began Saturday with the army at first declining to join.
Around 60 representatives of Burkina Faso's political parties and civil society met in the capital Ouagadougou to hammer out a handover plan, after Compaore fled on October 31 following an uprising against his bid to revise the constitution and extend his 27-year rule.
The army, who named Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida to head the country, had first refused to take part in the talks. They later sent a delegation led by Zida's right-hand man, Colonel August Denise Barry, who made a brief appearance at the discussions.
Barry told the conference that the army has no intention of holding on to power, saying that "things can no longer be like before", alluding to the country's history of military coups, according to civilian delegates.
Earlier, Zida had told a delegation from the talks that members of Compaore's political party should also be included in the discussions, which the other parties have so far refused to allow.
"For the purpose of reconciliation and reconstruction, one cannot exclude a party of the people," Zida said, according to one of the delegates.
The army's power grab has attracted international condemnation and threats of sanctions from the African Union unless it hands over power within two weeks.
Bisa Williams, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, reiterated calls for a democratic transition after talks Saturday with Zida in the capital.
"We're counting on respect for the (army's) promise to put in place a democratic transition government which is led by a civilian," Williams said.
- Compaore speaks out -
Washington and Paris have been pressuring the military to quickly carry out elections.
The civilian groups had already agreed that the transition should last one year and that it should be led by a civilian before presidential and legislative elections take place by November 2015.
Transition plans were due to be presented Monday to African Union chief Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz when the Mauritanian president visits Ouagadougou to keep up pressure on the military to hand over power.
From his exile in neighbouring Ivory Coast, Compaore meanwhile accused the opposition of plotting a coup with the army, in an interview published Saturday.
"We knew for a long time that part of the opposition was working with the army. Their aim: to prepare a coup d'etat," Compaore told Jeune Afrique magazine.
"They wanted me to leave. I left. History will tell us if they were right," said the 63-year-old, who first took power in a 1987 coup.
As for Zida, Compaore said the lieutenant colonel was in a position that he would "not wish for his worst enemy".
In a sign of the shockwaves that events in the country have sent across west Africa, the leaders of Equatorial Guinea -- ruled since 1979 by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema -- have reportedly banned the media there from mentioning the revolt.
A journalist at the state broadcaster, who asked not to be named, told AFP that staff were ordered not to report the fall of Compaore.
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