The U.N. Security Council urged Guinea-Bissau's transitional government Wednesday to abide by announced election plans, warning of sanctions against those opposing a return to constitutional order.

After several delays, Bissau announced April 13 presidential and parliamentary elections to end a period of political instability that began with a coup two years ago.

Guinea-Bissau on Friday announced April 13 presidential and parliamentary elections to end a period of political instability which began with a coup two years ago.

The date had already been announced by military chiefs from the ECOWAS bloc of west African nations at a meeting in Bissau on Wednesday but a presidential decree seen by Agence France Presse represented the first official confirmation.

Guinea-Bissau's attorney general ordered the arrest of the recently-resigned interior minister on Saturday for suspected involvement in the boarding of a group of Syrians with allegedly false passports on a flight to Portugal.

Portuguese flag-carrier TAP suspended flights between the two nations when one of its aircraft from Bissau arrived in Lisbon on December 10 with the group of 74 refugees.

Guinea-Bissau's interim President Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo said a general election planned for May after a 12-month post-coup transition would be "impossible".

"It was planned that at the end of the transition, there would be general elections in May 2013. That is impossible. Technically there are still a lot of things to do," Nhamadjo said in remarks published in local media on Monday.

The African Union's peace and security body met Tuesday to discuss ongoing political crises in Mali and Guinea-Bissau and the escalating conflict between Sudan and South Sudan, urging immediate end to the conflicts.

"It is important... to find fast, equitable, just and durable solutions to the conflict in Guinea-Bissau and in Mali," AU security commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said at the meeting's opening.

The U.N. Security Council on Saturday threatened the African nation of Guinea-Bissau with "targeted sanctions" if the country's military junta did not step down and return civilians to power.

The Council reiterated its "strong condemnation" of the April 12 military coup, and demanded the "immediate restoration of the constitutional order as well as the reinstatement of the legitimate government of Guinea-Bissau."

A summit of six West African heads of state on the crisis in coup-stricken Guinea-Bissau scheduled for Monday in Conakry has been cancelled, the Guinean foreign minister said.

Edouard Nyankoi Lamah told Agence France Presse that the decision to scrap the summit was made "following the junta's grave decision to name a president, set up a transitional council and provide for a two-year transition."

The World Bank and the African Development Bank have suspended development programs in Guinea-Bissau to protest an April 12 army coup that ousted the government.

The two organizations said they joined the African Union and the ECOWAS regional bloc in "condemning the military coup in Guinea-Bissau, urging a speedy resolution of the crisis, and calling for the restoration of constitutional government to preserve the development gains of the country."

Five candidates competing in Guinea Bissau's aborted presidential election united Monday to condemn last week's coup as East Timor's Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel peace laureate from another Portuguese ex-colony, agreed to act as a mediator.

The April 12 military coup tipped the restive impoverished west African country into fresh chaos and interrupted a second-round presidential vote on April 29.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday condemned a coup d'etat in Guinea-Bissau and said the civilian government must be returned to power.

Security Council members "strongly condemn the forcible seizure of power from the legitimate government of Guinea-Bissau by some elements of its armed forces," said the council statement.