"It is a fait accompli, the facts are there," spokesman Parfait Mbaye said hours after rebels fighting for General Francois Bozize said they had taken over the presidential palace and the airport in Bangui, forcing President Ange-Felix Patasse's plane to divert to Cameroon.

The spokesman also used the words "president Bozize" in his interview from Bangui with RFI.

"I believe that this interruption of the democratic process in Central Africa is necessary to put things back to square one and start over again," he said, adding that the rebels wanted a "collective transition" with all the Central African people, and not a military transition.

In Bangui, the streets were relatively calm early Sunday, though sporadic gunfire could still be heard following a night of looting of buildings belonging to government officials. The shooting was apparently aimed at stopping the looting, which also targeted houses belonging to expatriates and businesses.

National radio resumed broadcasting after a more than 12-hour interruption, playing military music, with Central Africans anxiously awaiting an official statement from the rebels.

This is the second coup attempt in the Central African Republic in five months. Patasse survived a coup bid by Bozize's forces in October last year when he was supported by Libyan troops and fighters sent by a rebel leader in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Patasse tried to return to Bangui from Niamey late on Saturday, but his plane was shot at while on approach to Bangui, forcing the aircraft to divert to Yaounde.

The president and his large delegation spent the night in a Yaounde hotel, where security has been tightened.

Bozize, already involved in a coup attempt in November 2001, went into exile in Chad and then France. He briefly returned to the region during last year's coup bid, but later left again. Reports from Chad this week indicated he could have returned to the region.

A rebel official late Saturday declined to reveal Bozize's location.

WAR.WIRE