By Richard Lough
ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's president on Thursday appealed to the splintering security forces "to fulfil their responsibilities" in a power struggle with the opposition that has killed 135 people on the Indian Ocean island.
U.N.-brokered talks aimed at solving the crisis and which had been due to take place were postponed and the United States encouraged its diplomats and citizens in the country to leave.
The unrest on the world's fourth largest island has left it unclear who is controlling the government and security forces.
On Wednesday, the leader of a widening mutiny within the army appointed himself chief of staff, ousting Madagascar's top general who had given the political rivals 72 hours -- until Friday -- to find a solution or face army intervention.
In a statement on national radio, President Marc Ravalomanana, who has appeared recently to be losing control of the traditionally neutral armed forces, called for calm.
"Our priority is to restore law and order. I appeal to the security forces to fulfil their responsibilities and protect the people and to do it with dignity," he said.
Shops along the capital Antananarivo's May 13 Plaza -- the epicentre of popular revolts since Madagascar won independence from France in 1960 -- stayed shut as nervous residents awaited developments. Usually traffic-choked streets were quiet.
Mediators had hoped to bring Ravalomanana and opposition leader Andry Rajoelina together on Thursday for face-to-face talks to end the chaos that is crippling a $390 million-a-year (284 million pound) tourism industry and spooking foreign investors.
But Rajoelina, who has been under U.N. protection since fleeing attempts to arrest him last week, refused to attend.
"Today's dialogue has been postponed," U.N. mediator Drame Tiebile told Reuters, giving no more details.
U.S. Ambassador Niels Marquardt, who said on Wednesday that Madagascar was "on the verge of civil war," had offered staff voluntary evacuation, sources at the mission told Reuters.
"He has very strongly encouraged us to leave if we feel uncomfortable," said one senior official, who was planning to fly out with relatives on Friday.
An embassy message urged all Americans in Madagascar to monitor the situation closely and to consider leaving while commercial flights were still operating normally.
Rajoelina, 34, a baby-faced former disc jockey, has tapped into a deep vein of public anger at Ravalomanana's failure to tackle poverty. He calls the president a dictator and has tried to establish a parallel administration.
MILITARY FACTOR
Critics call Rajoelina a maverick and troublemaker, and analysts are unsure he may have over-played his hand or is riding on a popular wave that could carry him to power.
The political crisis, which has been running since the start of 2009, has intensified in the past few days.
European Union mission head Jean-Claude Boidin told Reuters any "non-constitutional" solution to the political impasse -- meaning a coup -- would lead to a suspension of aid.
"It is not a possibility, it is the rule according to the Cotonou (aid) agreement," Boidin said.
Rajoelina's camp appeared to endorse the army mutineers for the first time late on Wednesday. "Madagascar's security forces have taken responsibility, not wanting to disgrace their military honour through acts of repression," it said.
The head of the gendarmerie, or military police, also backed the mutineers on Thursday.
"We are working with the army and the national police with the army's new chief of staff. The priority is to restore order," General Pily Gilbain told reporters. Two sections of Madagascar's security forces -- army and gendarmerie, but not the normal police -- have now swung against Ravalomanana.
Asked whether the gendarmerie would act against civilian demonstrators, Gilbain said: "Popular protests are political protests. We, the armed forces, are not political so we should not meddle in political affairs."
Pro-opposition driver Rivo Rasandratra said his biggest fear was that the president might bring in outside mercenaries to protect himself since the army no longer listened to him. "The security forces would never accept it. Then we have a problem," he said.
(Additional reporting by Alain Iloniaina; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
