(NOUAKCHOTT) - Representatives from the international community have said this weekend that they will oppose any "unilateral" elections organised by the military junta which seized power last week.

Envoys from the European Union, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United States told Mauritania's junta leader General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz that they rejected his plans for new elections, a diplomatic source told AFP Monday.

Later on Monday the supporters of deposed president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, the northwest African country's first democratically elected president, are set to hold another anti-coup rally in the capital Nouakchott.

Ambassadors from France, Germany, Spain and the United States together with representatives from the EU and UNDP met Ould Abdel Aziz and told him they rejected "the organising of unilateral elections which would be illegitimate", said a French diplomat who did not want to be named.

Last week troops led by Ould Abdel Aziz, the former head of the presidential guard, overthrew Abdallahi after he tried to sack four generals including Abdel Aziz but promised to hold elections quickly.

"The six (representatives) firmly condemned the coup and said it was unacceptable to overthrow a democratically elected president and demanded that the president and his prime minister are set free and constitutional order is restored," the source said.

Representatives from the United Nations, the Arab League and the African Union also came to Mauritania to talk with the new junta leader, but did not make any statements about what was said.

On Friday night the African Union announced it would suspend Mauritania's membership of the AU "until the country has a constitutional government".

In an interview with AFP on Sunday the general insisted that he stepped in to save his country.

"I believe that the international community is not looking to destabilise Mauritania," he said.

"When it has all the information, it will turn in a positive direction."

During the weekend the general received ambassadors of neighbouring countries like Algeria, Morocco and Senegal and representatives from important economic partner counties such as China, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, a source close to the junta leadership said.

Supporters of the ousted president were planning an anti-coup rally for Monday afternoon. On Friday several hundred people gathered for a similar rally, including some ministers and members of parliament.

On Sunday the President of Mauritania's national assembly, Messoud Ould Boulkheir, pledged his full support to the deposed president.

In a statement he said he recognised no one except Abdallahi and said he would not agree to any presidential elections staged by the coup leaders.

But 67 out of 95 Mauritanian members of Parliament later rejected his statement in a joint declaration saying he was only speaking for himself.

The 2007 elections that Abdallahi won were hailed as a model of democracy for Africa, following a three-year transition after a bloodless coup in August 2005.

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