The president and vice-president will be chosen by a group of people appointed by the junta however, according to Moussa Camara, spokesman for the talks.

His words come as West African leaders are escalating pressure on the junta and urging them to restore President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to power.

The March 23 killings by suspected hunters from the Dogon community on Ogossagou, a village in central Mali, were bloody even by the recent standards of Mali's ever-worsening violence.