West Africa bloc willing to accept another 12 to 16 months transition in Mali

Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are willing to accept a transitional military government in Mali for another 12 to 16 months, the President of the ECOWAS Commission said after a summit on Friday.

The bloc also set a deadline of April 25 for Guinea's junta to provide an democratic transition time table and asked Burkina Faso's interim leaders to reduce a proposed transition of 36 months to a "more acceptable timeline", Jean Claude Kassi Brou told a news conference in Accra.