In a statement from the office of President Nicolas Sarkozy, France called for the release and restoration of President Mohammed Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi and said the government elected in March 2007 must be re-established, the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported.

"In these conditions, France is standing ready to take individual sanctions against the principal leaders of the junta," the government statement said.

Members of the junta and their relatives could have assets in France frozen.

Mauritania, on the west coast of Africa, is a former French colony that has been through long periods of dictatorship since independence in 1960. On Aug. 6, the head of the presidential guards seized control and imprisoned the elected president.

The coup has been condemned by the African Union and the United Nations.