A rebel group fighting Mali's army says it is ending military operations Thursday at midnight.
The MNLA separatist rebels made the announcement on their website. The Tuareg rebels, along with Islamist fighters, seized the northern cities of Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu last week.
It is unclear if the Islamist fighters will also end military operations.
Meanwhile, Mali's main political parties have rejected a call by military junta leaders for a "national convention" to sort out the country's political and security problems.
The FDR coalition of 50 political parties and civil society groups released a statement Wednesday, saying such a convention is not compatible with a return to constitutional order.
Junta leader Captain Amadou Sanogo had said the proposed meeting of political and civil society representatives could forge a consensus on how to deal with Mali's challenges.
"The conclusion of this convention should be accepted by everyone, in order to put a stop to internal political considerations and deal with the major challenge rapidly, meaning the challenge of the security situation in the north and the integrity of our national territory," Sanogo said.
Soldiers seized power from President Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22, accusing him of failing to equip the army to fight the rebels. The international community has called for coup leaders to return the country to civilian rule.
The junta has accused rebels of committing "grave rights violations" in the town of Gao. The junta said women and girls in Gao have been kidnapped and raped.
Tuareg rebels launched an offensive on Friday and rapidly seized the three key cities that were still under army control.
An Islamist militant group called Ansar Dine has also entered some areas and started imposing Sharia, or Islamic law. Ansar Dine has been linked to the al-Qaida branch in northern Africa known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM.
The heavily armed rebels arrived in northern Mali after the fall of neighboring Libya and launched an insurgency in mid-January. Tuareg separatists have been seeking autonomy for decades.
On Tuesday, the United Nations said at least 200,000 people have fled the unrest in northern Mali, roughly half of them seeking refuge in neighboring Burkina Faso and Mauritania.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
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