(Adds details) WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The United States has slapped travel restrictions on some members of the military junta and the government in Mauritania following the August coup, the State Department announced on Friday. "The Mauritanian people deserve the right to the democracy they worked so hard to obtain and to enjoy the security and development that can only come with democracy," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack in announcing the travel restrictions to the United States. The State Department did not immediately name who was affected by the travel bans or provide any other details. McCormack said in a statement that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had imposed the travel restrictions on Thursday against certain junta members and other individuals who "support policies or actions that undermine Mauritania's return to constitutional rule." He reiterated a call for the unconditional release of toppled President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi and the immediate restoration of constitutional order in Mauritania. He said the United States strongly supported the efforts of the African Union to resolve the current political crisis in the West African nation. The chairman of the AU is set to meet the leaders of Mauritania's military junta later this month The AU, whose mediation efforts have failed so far, had threatened to slap sanctions on the junta if it does not free the president before Oct. 6. Abdallahi was the first democratically elected president since independence in 1974. But it is unclear what further sanctions the AU would impose, especially as several of its members in the region have given their tacit approval to the coup. The United States, France and the World Bank acted quickly to cut aid after Abdallahi was overthrown, and the European Union is reviewing its aid. (Reporting by Sue Pleming; Editing by Eric Walsh)
Supporters carry a poster of coup leader and former presidential guard chief Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz in Mauritania's capital Nouakchott in this August 7, 2008 file photo. Daniel Magnowski, correspondent for ...
