Nouakchott, Mauritania - Mauritanian presidential elections will take place as planned on June 6, Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi said Thursday after talks there as current African Union head.

Gaddafi arrived in Mauritania Monday seeking a deal to end the political crisis that has gripped the county since the military deposed in an August 6 coup President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.

"I came representing the African Union (AU) to make sure that fair, transparent elections will be held on its set date," Gaddafi told reporters before leaving Nouakchott.

The AU imposed sanctions on Mauritania in February, including a travel ban and a freeze of bank assets on the members of the junta, and called for "an immediate return to constitutional order."

The military rulers have announced they will hold new presidential elections on June 6.

Gaddafi pointed out that the sanctions imposed by the AU on Mauritania's military junta will not be implemented as long as the elections take place on time, saying that "the problem is over, the case is closed".

The coup has been widely condemned by the international community.

Gaddafi became the highest-ranking official to seek an end to the political stalemate in Mauritania since the coup, led by General Mohammed Ould Abdel-Aziz.

Abdallahi, Mauritania's first democratically-elected president, visited Libya for talks with Gaddafi last week at the Libyan leader's invitation. He had been under house arrest until December.

Meanwhile, the National Front for the Defence of Democracy opposition group rejected Gaddafi's mediation bid, accusing him of trying to legitimise last year's coup.

"We can never participate in a mediation under Libyan authority as long as the Libyans are backing the junta," the spokesman of the group Mohamed Ould Moloud said Thursday.

On Wednesday, opposition politicians from the group walked out the capital's congress centre while Gaddafi was still speaking.

Gaddafi's visit is his first in more than 25 years. Relations between Mauritania and Libya have been strained since 1999, when Mauritania became one of three members of the Arab League to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, alongside Egypt and Jordan.

On Friday, Mauritania ordered Israel to close its embassy in Nouakchott in protest over Israel's 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip in late December and January. (dpa)