President Abdallahi earlier sacked the head of his presidential guard [AFP]

Officers seized Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, the president, on Wednesday, along with the country's interior minister and Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf, Mauritania's prime minister in what appears to be a bloodless coup.

"What is going on in Mauritania is a coup d’etat organised by rebels who were sacked by the president on Wednesday morning," Abdullah Mamadouba, the official spokesman for the Mauritanian presidency, said.

"It is a coup against the constitutional legitimacy in Mauritania."

Earlier local radio announced the president's order sacking General Mohammad al-Abdul Aziz, the head of the presidential guard and General Mohammad al-Ghazwani, the army chief of staff.

"The two Generals have now turned the military against the president to overthrow him through this coup," Mamadouba said.

Later the coup leaders released a statement under the auspices of a new 'Mauritanian state council', headed by Ould Abdul Aziz, canceling the presidential decree that had sacked him and al-Ghazwani.

President Abdallahi's daughter confirmed her father was being held by the army.

"The security agents of the BASEP [the presidential security battalion] came to our home around 9.20am (09:20 GMT) and took away my father," she was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying.

Bloodless coup

Army units were reported to have surrounded the presidential palace in the capital.

Both Mauritanian television and radio went off air, with army units said to have surrounded Mauritanian television's main building.

"Huge crowds of Mauritanians are teeming the street of the capital Nouakchott," Hamdi Ould al Hacen, a freelance journalist working in Mauritania, said.

"Mauritanians are very worried about the future of their newborn democracy," he added, referring to Abdallahi's win in elections last year, which saw him take over from the country's military rulers.

He also confirmed that there had been as yet no violence.

"Life is remaining as it was - businesses and schools are still open. Life is as it was," he said.

Political crisis

Abdallahi took over from the country's military rulers that had held power since toppling Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya, then president, in a bloodless coup in 2005.

Abdallahi replaced one government in May following criticism over the government's response to soaring food prices and to attacks over the last year carried out by al-Qaeda's north African arm.

But the new government resigned last month in the face of a proposed no-confidence vote and a new one was formed.

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