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Earlier, a senior army officer said soldiers would launch an assault to retake the capital, if the presidential guard did not surrender by 10:00 GMT.

A reporter for VOA in Ouagadougou, Emilie Iob, said the streets of the capital emptied out as word spread that the army was coming.

Burkina Faso’s President Michel Kafando said he and his government were back in power on Wednesday a week after a coup, though it was unclear who was really in charge after the rebellion’s leader attended a state function.

Negotiations between army chiefs and the presidential guard have broken down, a senior military officer said.

Senegal’s president Macky Sall, the current chairman of West Africa’s regional bloc ECOWAS who is leading the mediation efforts, later left the hotel.

With interim president Michel Kafando, prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida and two ministers under arrest, the country is on the brink of chaos.

In media interviews, he said he had no contact with Mr Compaore and would do everything to “avoid violence that could plunge the country into chaos”.

Burkina Faso’s interim President Michel Kafando has been freed and is in good health, the new junta leaders say.

Burkina Faso’s new leader is a trusted aide of Compaore’s, General Gilbert Diendere.

Soldiers who stormed a cabinet meeting, plunging the poor West African country into chaos and uncertainty, detained President Michel Kafando and Prime Minister Yacouba Zida.

“We ask them to lay down their arms and go the Sangoule Lamizana camp where they and their families will be safe”, it said, referring to a military barrack west of the capital.

The interim president of Burkina Faso has reportedly been released from detention by coup leaders.

A delegation of regional mediators said over the weekend there had been a breakthrough and hinted that the transitional government could return. Earlier in the day, the talks had erupted into violence after members of the presidential guard stormed the hotel where they were being...