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President Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali has formally resigned as part of a deal with coup leaders to end the crisis gripping the West African state. International mediator Djibrill Bassole, Burkina Faso's foreign minister, confirmed a letter of resignation had been submitted. The resignation paves the way for the coup leaders to step aside and the parliamentary speaker to take over. Mali has been grappling with a separatist uprising in the north. It intensified after the coup by army officers on 22 March. Sanctions lifted Mr Bassole, who represents the West African regional bloc Ecowas, met Mr Toure in the Malian capital, Bamako. "We have just received the formal letter of resignation from President Amadout Toumani Toure," he told reporters. "We will now contact the competent authorities so that the vacancy of the presidency would be established and so that they take the appropriate measures." Under the agreement, the Malian speaker, Dioncounda Traore, will take over as interim president and rule with a transitional government until elections are held. Ecowas has lifted sanctions it imposed after the coup and an amnesty has been agreed for the coup leaders. Since the coup, key towns in northern Mali have fallen to Tuareg separatist rebels and their Islamist allies.