Antananarivo  - Madagascar's opposition leader Andry Rajoelina said Wednesday he would boycott peace talks planned for Thursday aimed at ending the violent standoff with President Marc Ravalomanana.

Rajoelina told Western diplomats he and other opposition groups would boycott the talks with government and civic groups that the Council for Christian Churches of Madagascar is organizing on behalf of the United Nations.

The army on Tuesday gave the two leaders 72 hours to resolve their differences or see the army impose the solution it considers best for Madagascans.

The six-week-long stand-off has seen scores killed as opposition forces blockaded ministries in the capital, and the security forces fired on demonstrators.

Diplomatic sources say Rajoelina, a former mayor of the capital, may be holding out for possible fresh elections that he likely feels he can win.

Analysts say Ravalomanana, the country's millionaire leader of seven years whom the opposition accuses of authoritarianism and economic misrule, appears to have lost the support of most of the military.

On Thursday, the leader of a group of mutinous soldiers reportedly took over as army chief of staff.

Rajoelina, who fears arrest for leading six weeks of opposition demonstrations aimed at forcing Ravalomanana from office, has been given UN protection.

Earlier this week he was given sanctuary in the French embassy, the Indian Ocean island's former colonial power.

On Tuesday, following a protest by the president's supporters outside the embassy, the embassy said he was no longer staying there. (dpa)