The junta that took over Mauritania in a military coup promised "free and transparent" presidential elections in "the shortest possible period" in a statement read on national radio Thursday.

The 11-member High State Council of armed and security forces led by former head of the presidential guard General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz had on Wednesday "ended the power of the president of the republic, invested on April 19 2007," the statement said.

"It will take the necessary measures to guarantee the continuity of the state and to get together with institutions, political forces and civil society to supervise the holding of presidential elections enabling the relaunch of the democratic process in the country and to reshape it on a perennial basis."

The junta's statement promised: "These elections, which will be held in the shortest possible period, will be free and transparent and will bring for the future a continued and harmonious functioning of all the constitutional powers."

Troops ousted Mauritania's president in a military coup on Wednesday after he tried to sack senior army officers accused of being behind a political crisis destabilising the country.

In a move widely condemned by the international community, President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was arrested after military convoys rolled through the capital Nouakchott and took over the presidential palace and the prime minister's office, apparently without a shot being fired.

Soldiers also took over the national radio and television headquarters, replacing the directors, and shut down the international airport.

A statement read on public radio later said General Aziz, the head of the presidential guard sacked that morning, was leading the coup.

A newly constituted Military State Council said it was immediately annulling the army appointments made by the president.

"The president has just been arrested by a commando, who came to fetch him, arrested him here and took him away," the president's daughter, Amal Mint Cheikh Abdallahi, told Radio France International from the palace.

She said armed men had occupied the presidency and that she was being prevented from leaving the building, but that she had not heard shots fired.

The president's whereabouts were unknown, while Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf was taken to an army barracks near the presidency, security sources said.

HEYET Ne t- AFP