Burkina Faso coup leader has apologised to the nation and said that he would hand over power to a civilian transitional government.

The statement issued by General Gilbert Diendere to journalists in Burkina Faso comes just as the military threatened on Monday to forcibly disarm presidential guard members led by him, who were responsible for last week's coup ahead of October 11 polls.

Diendere said he would release the interim prime minister who has been under house arrest since the coup.

The heads of the country's military said troops would be converging on the capital of Ouagadougou to try to disarm the coup government without bloodshed.

"All the national armed forces are converging on [capital] Ouagadougou with the sole aim of disarming the presidential guard without any bloodshed," a military statement said.

"The army say their goal is to protect the public from the presidential guard. The presidential guard last week shot at the population injuring dozens," Al Jazeera's Nicolas Haque, reporting from Ouagadougou, said.

Several people have been killed and dozens others injured during the subsequent demonstrations against the coup.

Demonstrators have been protesting against a proposed compromise solution to the country's deepening political crisis. The protesters say that the plan is too lenient on the military government.

Regional mediators spent the weekend trying to broker the compromise between the military government that seized power in a coup last week and other politicians in this West African country.

They announced a plan late on Sunday that calls for new elections by the end of November. However, Diendere did not attend the news conference where the draft agreement was read aloud.

'Deep-rooted problems'

Interim President Michel Kafando voiced reservations about the proposal in a radio interview on Monday, saying: "I have reservations about this draft agreement" which leaves "deep-rooted problems" without solutions."

In a concession to Diendere and his supporters, the plan would allow loyalists of the former longtime president to take part in the vote.

One of the chief reasons cited for the coup was that an electoral code approved earlier this year banned members of the former ruling party from running for office.

Under that plan, Diendere would step aside and the interim president he overthrew would be reinstalled until the vote.

The draft plan will go before the West African regional bloc known as the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, in Nigeria on Tuesday.

Blaise Compaore served as president for 27 years, and his bid to further extend his rule prompted massive street protests and eventually led to his overthrow.

Al Jazeera