Leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have urged Madagascar's political rivals to commit to peaceful negotiations and refrain from violence three months after the ousting of Marc Ravalomanana, the president.

This came at the Sadc extraordinary summit on Saturday over the lingering political crisis on the vast Indian Ocean island after Andry Rajoelina seized power in March.

The summit "urged all stakeholders to commit themselves to peaceful negotiated settlement through dialogue and desist from any violent solutions and inflammatory statements" that could jeopardise efforts at constitutional normalcy, Tomaz Salomao,  the Sadc executive secretary, said.

The 15-member bloc has appointed Joaquim Chissano, the former president of Mozambique, to co-ordinate mediation efforts and will hold an ordinary summit in Kinshasha in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he said, reading the meeting's final communique in the early hours of Sunday.

"What Sadc has decided to do is to try to pull together all the activities that are taking place under the leadership of the mediator and his team," Jacob Zuma, the South African president, said at the post-summit briefing.

Madagascar, which was suspended from the bloc in March, had no official representation but fallen leader Ravalomanana held informal bilateral talks with several participants. He did not officially address the summit, while Rajoelina was not invited.

The bloc announced the summit on Thursday, following the suspension of mediation efforts by the African Union and United Nations earlier in the week.