The UN Security Council and the African Union are "categorically rejecting" rebel attempts to divide Mali and are calling for Guinea-Bissau's military rulers to relinquish power.

Mortars blasted through the capital of the small, coup-prone nation of Guinea-Bissau as the military sealed off the city’s central area and lobbed grenades at the prime minister’s home, according to a diplomat and witnesses.

The president of Guinea-Bissau reassured residents of the West African nation by news conference from his bullet-scarred home after mutinous soldiers fought their way into the residence in a three-hour gunbattle with his guards.

MUTINOUS soldiers fought their way into the fortified residence of Guinea-Bissau’s president yesterday, launching a three-hour gunbattle with his guards, as the leader and his family hid elsewhere in the building, a top official said.