West African leaders summoned Togo's authorities to talks in Niger on Saturday, threatening immediate sanctions if the new leader, whose appointment they denounced as a military coup, did not comply. Faure Gnassingbe was named president by the army just hours after his father Gnassingbe Eyadema died a week ago. His appointment violated the constitution which was hastily amended. African leaders, former colonial ruler France and the United States swiftly condemned the move, demanding that presidential polls be held and threatening an array of sanctions. A delegation of West African heads of state had been due to go to the capital Lome for talks with Gnassingbe on Friday. But they cancelled the trip after he decided to meet them in his northern base of Kara, close to where Eyadema was born and where his body now lies, and summoned him instead to Niger on Saturday. "(The heads of state) reiterated their total rejection of the coup d'etat and invite the Togolese authorities once again to reverse their unconstitutional acts," they said in a statement after talks in Benin's main city Cotonou. --More 2331 Local Time 2031 GMT
