Mali PM Ready for Talks with Rebels, but Not Under Duress

Mali's new interim Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra said Friday he was ready for talks with armed groups who have seized control of the country's north -- but not under duress.

In his first speech to the nation Diarra addressed "residents of the north who are suffering from an aggression as barbaric as it is incomprehensible" as a result of their towns being held by Tuareg rebels and hardline Islamists.

Following his nomination to the post to end a crisis sparked by a coup on March 22, winning back the territory in the north is Diarra's "top priority.”

"All options are conceivable, first that of negotiation," he said.

"Yes, we will negotiate because we hate war. We will negotiate because we are not afraid to negotiate," he said on state television.

But not with "a knife to the throat, accepting a fait accompli."

A group of low-ranking soldiers ousted the democratically elected government over what they said was its incompetence in dealing with a resurgent Tuareg rebellion.

However the power vacuum in the days after the coup allowed the Tuareg desert nomads and a group of armed Islamists to seize an area larger than France in the north of the country.

The Tuareg have declared an independent state and the Islamists have imposed sharia law in cities including Timbuktu.

Diarra said Mali had "suffered a deficit from government and a lack of capacity to anticipate" which had led to the current situation.

Ousted president Amadou Toumani Toure resigned as part of an agreement hammered out between the junta and regional mediators to set up an interim government. He has sought refuge in neighboring Senegal.