Malian Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra quit Tuesday under pressure from influential former putschists who are opposed to a military intervention to drive out Islamists occupying the country's north. France and the European Union urged the ex-junta which overthrew Amadou Toumani Toure's regime in March to stop meddling in politics and called for a new government to be formed as swiftly as possible.

Diarra's resignation came a day after the EU approved plans to deploy an military training mission of some 250 troops Mali to help the government regain control of the vast semi-desert north from Islamic extremists. The 60-year-old astrophysicist and former chairman of Microsoft Africa was seized at home by soldiers late Monday and hours later at dawn went on state television to announce he was stepping down.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012