Nouakchott - Mauritania's first democratically-elected president formally stepped aside Saturday, ten months after being deposed in a coup, clearing the way for July 18 elections.

Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi signed the agreement paving the way for the elections. Negotiations had been mediated by the African Union, European Union, Arab League and United Nations. An interim regime will now be set up to guide the nation until the elections.

Without that agreement, major opposition parties had announced a boycott of any vote, describing it as a charade to sweep former junta leader Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz back to power.

Abdel Aziz had ousted Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi in a bloodless coup in August.

Abdel Aziz later stepped down as junta leader to contest the elections, handing power to senate president Ba Mamadou Mbare, who became Mauritania's first black head of state since the desert country straddling Arab and black Africa became independent from France in 1960.(dpa)