Madagascar's feuding political parties agreed the top three posts in an interim government on Tuesday with 35-year-old Andry Rajoelina remaining president, delegates at power-sharing talks said, according to Reuters.
Rajoelina toppled Marc Ravalomanana in a coup in March, triggering months of political turmoil on an Indian Ocean island that is increasingly eyed by foreign investors for its oil, nickel, cobalt, gold, coal and ilmenite.
"We now have the three posts that were missing in Maputo," Ange Andrianarisoa, head of one of the four delegations, told reporters, referring to previous talks in Mozambique.
"The president is Andry Rajoelina, the vice-president is Emmanuel Rakotovahiny, and the prime minister is Eugene Mangalaza."
Tuesday's meeting of the International Contact Group was the latest push to establish a unity government that will organise fresh presidential and legislative elections before late 2010.
The African Union's (AU) special envoy to Madagascar, Ablasse Ouedraogo, said the agreement -- which has yet to be formally signed -- marked the beginning of restoring constitutional order on the world's fourth largest island.
But he said much work remained to be done.
"What has been achieved today constitutes the beginning of setting up a transition (to be put in place) through the continued implementation of the Maputo charter," Ouedraogo said.
Ouedraogo confirmed that Ravalomanana had accepted that Rajoelina should remain president on condition that he would not stand at the next presidential election.
Rajoelina has not yet responded, but Ouedraogo said Ravalomanana's condition did not conform with the Maputo deal.