The prime minister of Mali yesterday resigned on state television, hours after being arrested by soldiers who were behind a military coup in March.

Cheick Modibo Diarra was detained on Monday at his home in the capital Bamako, reportedly on the orders of the coup leader, Capt Amadou Sanogo.

The source said soldiers had: "smashed in the door of the prime minister's residence and took him away a bit violently". He had been due to travel to France.

Diarra was made prime minister of an interim government in April after the military officially handed power back to civilians.

The 60-year-old astrophysicist has backed plans to send a West African intervention force into the northern half of Mali which was seized after the coup by Islamists and Tuareg separatists. Many within Mali's military are opposed to foreign intervention, saying they need only financial and logistical support.