Several Mali soldiers said Thursday they had seized power from an "incompetent regime," announcing on television they had suspended the constitution and dissolved state institutions.

Several Mali soldiers claimed Thursday they had seized power from an "incompetent regime," announcing on television they had suspended the constitution and dissolved state institutions.

The putschists, calling themselves the National Committee for the Establishment of Democracy, said they had acted due to government's "inability" to handle a Tuareg-led insurrection in the north of the country.

The group's spokesman, identified on-screen as Lieutenant Amadou Konare said the takeover was a result of a "lack of adequate material to defend the nation" as well as government's inability to combat terrorism.

The appearance on television came shortly after the mutinous soldiers seized the presidential palace and arrested several ministers, including Foreign Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga and Interior Minister Kafouhouna Kone.

Meanwhile an independent source told AFP news agency that President Amadou Toumani Toure, earlier holed up in the palace as shots were traded outside, had managed to leave the premises.

Calls for calm poured in from abroad as the United Nations, France and United States expressed alarm at the events unfolding in the landlocked west African nation.

Elite paratroopers known as the "Red Berets" had attempted to defend the presidency, but the renegade soldiers claimed the upper hand.

The coup comes just a month before Toure was due to step down ahead of April elections after serving two presidential terms. He was not a candidate.

The president is himself a former soldier who led the ouster of president-for-life Moussa Traore in 1991 before handing power to civilians. He later won an election in 2002 and was re-elected in 2007.

Anger has grown in recent weeks over the government's handling of the conflict in which the Tuareg attacks have caused up to 200,000 people to flee.

While no official death toll is available, many soldiers are believed to have died in the fighting or taken prisoner.

Wednesday's turmoil erupted when efforts by Defense Minister Sadio Gassama to ease tensions at a military barracks outside the capital turned sour and soldiers fired shots into the air as they demanded proper weapons with which to face the rebels.

Soldiers took to the capital, firing shots wildly into the air and sending people running in all directions as panic grew.

A nomadic community of some 1.5 million people, Tuareg of various tribes are scattered between Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Niger and Mali.

Mali and Niger experienced uprisings as the Tuareg fought for recognition of their identity and an independent state in the 1960s, 1990s and early 2000, with a resurgence between 2006 and 2009.