The ruling military council of Mauritania has announced a comprehensive amnesty for political prisoners.

Aljazeera's correspondent in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, has further learned that the authorities plan to release later on Friday military officers who opposed the 3 August coup that ousted president Maaouwya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya.

In his first public address since the coup, the head of the self-proclaimed Military Council for Justice and Democracy in Mauritania, Colonel Ali Ould Mohammed Val, said on Friday the amnesty was open to all political detainees "in order to give them the opportunity to participate in building the country".

Val said the military council was determined to democratise Mauritania and would bar senior government functionaries from running in planned elections.

He said the military council had committed itself to "creating conditions conducive to a democratic, open and transparent election and restricted its period of government to not more than two years".

Issuing a decree, he said "the president and members of the Military Council for Justice and Democracy, as well as the prime minister and members of the government, are ineligible" to stand for presidential and legislative elections.

The aim is to guarantee "the absolute neutrality of the state apparatus and administration" during an electoral process decided upon in the framework of the democratic transition process, Val said.

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