frican leaders lifted sanctions against Togo after Faure Gnassingbe bowed to huge international pressure and quit as president of the West African country, the United Nations said on Saturday.

Faure Gnassingbe at the swearing-in ceremony Monday

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African leaders, European officials and the United States had urged Gnassingbe to step down following his appointment as president by Togo's army hours after his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, died on Feb. 5, ending his 38-year rule.

"As a result of those positive developments, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has lifted the sanctions imposed on Togo," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement on Saturday.

Thousands of people took to the streets of the capital Lome on Saturday in two rival, peaceful, marches planned before Gnassingbe, 39, announced his decision to quit and run for president in forthcoming elections late on Friday night.

West African nations had suspended Togo from its bloc, banned its leaders from traveling, recalled ambassadors and decreed an arms embargo as punishment for violating Togo's constitution when Gnassingbe was appointed.

In a bid to stem international fury, Gnassingbe had pledged to hold presidential elections in 60 days in the former French colony but had indicated he would stay on until the vote.

"To guarantee the transparency of this election ... and to give the same chance to all the candidates, I have decided to renounce the post of president of the national assembly, who is acting president of the republic," Gnassingbe said on Friday.

"I sincerely hope that the West African community and the international community remains at our side to guarantee the organization of free, transparent and honest elections."

OPEN TO ALL

ECOWAS welcomed Togo back into the fold on Saturday and the African Union called in statement for a free and fair presidential elections in Togo, "open to everyone."

Togo's presidency said Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo, Niger's leader Tandja Mamadou and President John Kufuor from neighboring Ghana would visit Lome on Monday.

While Gnassingbe was elected head of the ruling party on Friday and is its official candidate for the upcoming polls, one of the main opposition leaders, Gilchrist Olympio, is barred by the constitution from standing because he lives in exile.

"No presidential elections in Togo without Gilchrist Olympio" said a banner carried by the opposition protesters on Saturday. Officials from his party said they planned to keep on marching despite Gnassingbe's decision to step aside.

Abass Bonfoh, a member of the ruling party, will be acting president until elections after he was chosen as the new head of parliament in a late night vote on Friday.

Under Togo's constitution, the former head of the national assembly, Fambare Ouattara Natchaba, should have become acting president on the death of Eyadema, but he was not in Togo.

After the army named Gnassingbe president, the national assembly elected him as its head, legitimizing the earlier nomination which had been in violation of the constitution.

Parliament also removed a clause in the constitution requiring elections in 60 days, allowing Gnassingbe to rule unchallenged until 2008 and sparking international outrage.