A first round of Senegal-Gambia talks to end a three-month border blockade has ended without agreement amid an impasse over a long-delayed bridge project, a senior advisor to Senegal's foreign minister said Monday.

"We will consult our experts about the issue of the bridge, and the next meeting will be in July," the advisor said after several hours of talks between Senegal's foreign minister Mankeur Ndiaye and his Gambian counterpart Neneh Mcdouall-Geye on Sunday.

Senegal and The Gambia will hold talks on Sunday aimed at ending a three-month border blockade that has created shortages of essential daily items on both sides of the frontier.

Gambian authorities slapped a hundred-fold hike on fees for trucks entering its territory -- which is completely surrounded by Senegal -- without warning in February, infuriating Senegalese drivers who are now blockading the border.

President Yahya Jammeh has declared the Gambia "an Islamic state", but stressed that the rights of the Christian minority in the small west African country would be respected and that women would not be held to a dress code.

The announcement came as the president addressed supporters in the coastal town of Brufut on Thursday, and the comments were later broadcast on state television and repeated on his website.

Shadowy paramilitaries and secret police in Gambia are fueling a growing refugee crisis through atrocities committed against critics of one of the world's most repressive regimes, a new study said Thursday.

"State of Fear", the first ever report on the west African nation by Human Rights Watch, details extrajudicial killings, torture and disappearances which it says are "rife" in the tourist paradise.

The Gambian government has withdrawn its expulsion of a powerful business magnate accused by the United States of funding Hizbullah party.

Lebanese-Gambian multi-millionaire Hussein Tajudeen, a former close friend of President Yahya Jammeh, had been ordered to leave the country earlier this month for "unacceptable business practices that are detrimental to the Gambian economy," according to the presidency.

The EU representative in the Gambia has left the country under an expulsion order which drew criticism from opposition politicians and left Brussels "astonished", an airport source said Tuesday.

A member of the Gambia Civil Aviation Authority told AFP he saw the envoy Agnes Guillaud at Banjul International Airport on Monday night.

Gambia has given the EU representative in its capital Banjul 72 hours to depart from the country, leaving Brussels "astonished" and prompting the opposition to brand the decision gravely "ill-considered".

"The Gambian government informs the public that it has decided to call on Miss Agnes Guillaud, interim charge d'affaires of the European Union delegation in Gambia, to leave Gambian territory within 72 hours," said an official statement read out on public television late Friday.

One of the Gambia's most powerful business magnates, accused by the United States of funding Hizbullah, has been expelled, Gambian government sources said on Friday.

Lebanese-Gambian multi-millionaire Hussein Tajudeen, a former close friend of President Yahya Jammeh, was ordered out for "unacceptable business practices that are detrimental to the Gambian economy," according to the presidency.

Despite cries of alarm from European politicians over the deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean, African leaders have been silent over an issue they fear underlines their weak governance, say campaigners.

For years Libya has been a stepping stone for Africans seeking to get to Europe, fleeing conflict, economic hardship and instability often in rickety, unseaworthy vessels.

The United States slammed Gambian President Yahya Jammeh on Saturday for "unconscionable" remarks, after the West African leader reportedly threatened to slit the throats of gay men in his country.

In a public speech this month, Jammeh said he would slit the throats of men who wanted to marry other men in the small West African nation, according to Human Rights Campaign.