Mali's transition premier, the astrophysicist Cheick Modibo Diarra, pondered the make up of his interim government Friday in a defused political climate after the military released 22 political prisoners.

The military guard watching former minister Soumaila Cisse, was lifted from his post at the hospital where Cisse was recovering, after an announcement that the ex-minister was free to go.

Ousted president Amadou Toumani Toure, who formally resigned after being overthrown by the military last month, left the country to seek refuge in Senegal.

Abou Abel Thiam, spokesman for Senegalese President Macky Sall, told AFP that Toure, who arrived late Thursday in Dakar with his family, had been taken to the Residence Pasteur where high-ranking guests are lodged.

"He was calm. He was with his entire family" of about 15 people, Thiam said. Senegalese Foreign Minister Alioune Badara Cisse had gone to pick them up in the Malian capital Bamako in the Senegalese presidential plane, he added.

It was not immediately known if Toure, 63, would stay in Senegal or was just passing through.

A military source in Bamako had earlier said on condition of anonymity that Toure had departed "with the agreement of Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo", the coup leader, after soldiers posted at the airport had refused to let him leave.

The military source said troops had tried to oppose the former president's departure by firing in the air, provoking mass panic.

Toure's departure from Mali and the release of his allies who were rounded up by the junta helped ease tensions in Bamako where some feared soldiers were loathe to give up power as arrests continued despite a commitment to a return to civilian rule.

The wave of detentions took place shortly after former NASA astrophysicist and head of Microsoft Africa, Diarra was appointed. He is expected to announce the make up of his transition government in coming days.

Television footage had showed assault rifles and ammunition clips as Colonel Diamou Keita, the head of the gendarmerie, said they had arrested 22 people, 11 of whom were civilians -- one a banker -- and 11 of them soldiers.

"Everybody has been released," a source close to the leaders of the March 22 coup said late Thursday, adding however that Cisse and Toure ally, General Waly Sissoko "remained under medical observation".

"It was only this morning (Friday) that Soumaila Cisse was informed of his freedom in his hospital bed," said a member of his entourage, indicating he would be evacuated to France.

Gendarmerie chief Keita said late Thursday that those released could still be recalled by the authorities for questioning. He did not go into detail.

A group of renegade soldiers claiming to act against the government's inability to stop a Tuareg rebellion in the north seized control of Bamako on March 22, five weeks before planned presidential elections.

Following the conquest of the entire northern half of the country by Tuareg rebels and Al Qaeda-affiliated fighters and amid international condemnation, the junta struck a deal brokered by regional powers.

Malian deputies appealed Thursday to the armed movements controlling the north of the country to lay down their arms and withdraw immediately from all the occupied zones.

An African rights body warned Thursday that if Mali did not receive assistance to win back its north from Islamists and other rebels, it could become the "Afghanistan of Africa".