Mutinous soldiers have seized power in Mali after storming the president palace and arresting some of the government ministers, a spokesman for the rebellious soldiers said Thursday.

In a televised speech, the spokesman Amadou Konare announced the end of President Amadou Toumani Toure's government, whose power would be handed over to the next one.

Institutions have been dissolved and the Constitution suspended, Konare said, adding a presidential election would be held when time is ripe.

A national curfew has also been imposed.

So far, there is no media report on the whereabouts of President Toure.

Some soldiers occupied Malian national television ORTM in the capital on Wednesday and fired into the air to show their displeasure over treatment of a conflict in north Mali.

The protest came after Defense Minister Gen. Sadio Gassama failed to placate anger of the soldiers in the camp over the government's mismanagement of the crisis caused by the Tuareg armed rebellion which forced around 200,000 people to flee.

Tuareg is a nomadic community of 1.5 million people across the southern edge of the Sahara desert, or the Sahel region, in countries like Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Niger and Mali.

Tuareg rebels have launched repeated uprisings since Mali's independence from France in 1960.

Last Monday, children of some soldiers attempted to demonstrate outside the presidential palace to demand more information on the situation of their parents combating the Tuareg rebels.

However, they were violently dispersed by forces maintaining order. The young people have vowed to continue the protest until Toure tells them the truth about the management of the rebellion.

The U.S. government on Wednesday called for a peaceful solution to the ongoing crisis in Mali, saying the situation in the West African nation was "unclear and unfolding quickly" at the moment.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said "we believe that grievances should be addressed through dialogue, not through violence."

The UN Security Council on Wednesday appealed for calmness in Mali.

"Members of the council expressed concern about the reports of military disturbances in Mali. They appealed for calm from all stakeholders and respect for the constitutional order," said Britain's UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, the council president for March.