The prime minister of Mali,Cheik Modibo Diarra was on Monday arrested at his home in the capital Bamako, reportedly on the orders of the coup leader Capt Amadou Sanogo.
The prime minister resigned on state television, hours after being arrested by soldiers who were behind a military coup in March.
Tensions between the soldiers who led the coup and the civilian prime minister they were forced to appoint have been mounting.
In his address, Mr Diarra said: "Men and women who are worried about the future of our nation, you are hoping for peace. It's for this reason that I, Cheikh Modibo Diarra, am resigning along with my entire government."
A member of the president's entourage earlier confirmed reports that the prime minister had been arrested, AFP reports.
The source said soldiers had: "smashed in the door of the prime minister's residence and took him away a bit violently".
"They said Captain Sanogo sent them to arrest him," he added.
A spokesman for the group of soldiers, Bakary Mariko, told Reuters that Mr Diarra "wanted to leave the country having incited trouble".
AFP said the prime minister had been due to have a medical check up in France.
Mr Diarra has been leading an interim government of national unity.
It was formed in August in an attempt to restore stability following the coup, which allowed Islamists and Tuareg separatists to seize the entire northern half of the country.
The 60-year-old astrophysicist and premier supports plans to send a west African intervention force into the occupied territory to drive out the extremists.
The United Nations warned on Monday that the north of the country is now "one of the potentially most explosive corners of the world".
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