The agreement on a multi-party transitional government for Madagascar has got off to a difficult start, with the deposed head of state, Marc Ravalomanana, refusing to sign the agreement recognizing the leader who deposed him, Andry Rajoelina, as head of the interim adminstration.

After agreeing in Maputo in August on the establishment of a transitional government pending new elections next year, the country's major parties agreed on the composition of the government in further talks in Antananarivo on Tuesday. Rajoelina, who deposed Ravalomanana in March, was named its leader.

Ravalomanana announced his position in a telephoned message to his supporters on Wednesday.

The Maputo accord requires the signatures of all parties for it to take effect. Yves Aimé Rakotoarison, a former member of parliament for Ravalomanana's party, Tiako I Madagasikara, said the former president had the last word on whether to sign.

In a telephone interview, the group's representative at the Maputo talks, Fetison Rakoto Andrianirina, said there was no contradiction between its current position and that reached at Tuesday's talks.

He told Agence France-Presse on Monday that Ravalomanana had accepted Rajoelina as head of the transition, but to maintain the neutrality of the transition and avoid legitimizing a regime that had seized power unconstitutionally, Rajoelina could not be a candidate in the forthcoming presidential election.

The vice president of the transitional administration, Emmanuel Rakotovahiny of former President Albert Zafy's party, denounced Ravalomanana's attitude, accused his party of taking the country hostage and said the other three parties to the deal would proceed if Ravalomanana refused to take part.

But the African Union (AU) special representative at the talks, Ablassé Ouedraogo, said the development does not constitute a hurdle in the process. AU Commission head Jean Ping had said on Tuesday that the International Contact Group which mediated the talks had noted Ravalomanana's objections, but that the issue was not covered by the Maputo accord.

In Maputo, the parties had deadlocked on the issue who should be prime minister. This had been overcome and the focus of the contact group now was to implement the Maputo accord.

Adapted and translated from the original report in L'Express de Madagascar (Antananarivo) by Michael Tantoh.