Egypt's top military council said on Monday its commander Abdel Fattah al-Sisi should heed calls to stand in a presidential election, which he is assured to win after ousting Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, the country's first democratically elected leader.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said in a statement "the people's trust in Sisi is a call that must be heeded as the free choice of the people."

The African Union said Monday it had lifted its four-year suspension of Madagascar following democratic elections last month, the first since a 2009 coup.

The pan-African bloc's peace and security council announced "the lifting of the suspension of Madagascar" just two days after the country's new leader, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, was sworn in.

Five Egyptian diplomats kidnapped in Tripoli following the arrest in Egypt of a former Libyan rebel commander were released Sunday as part of a swap, officials said.

The abduction of the five on Saturday and of another member of the Egyptian embassy's staff a day earlier came after Shaaban Hadeia, a prominent commander in the rebellion that ousted Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, was arrested in Alexandria.

An al-Qaida-inspired group has claimed it shot down an Egyptian military helicopter in the Sinai peninsula, in what the army said was an accident that killed five soldiers.

The Ansar Beit al-Maqdis group, which has taken responsibility for a series of deadly attacks across the country, said its fighters brought down the helicopter on Saturday with a missile.

Egypt Sunday announced early presidential elections likely to anoint the general who overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, as the country reeled from a weekend of violence that killed dozens of people.

Interim president Adly Mansour announced the poll in a televised address, a day after 49 people died in clashes between Islamist protesters and police and thousands rallied in Cairo in support of military chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Egypt's ambassador and his staff have left Libya for security reasons after the kidnapping of five of their colleagues, the foreign ministry said Sunday.

"The ambassador and more than 50 staff and diplomats of the Egyptian embassy left Tripoli on Saturday evening," ministry spokesman Saeed Lassoued told AFP.

Four Egyptian soldiers were killed and nine wounded in attacks on the army in the restive Sinai Peninsula on Sunday, security officials said.

They said the assailants fired on a bus transporting soldiers as it drove near a military post in North Sinai that at the same time came under rocket attack.

Nearly 50 people were killed in weekend clashes that erupted during rival rallies marking the anniversary of Egypt's 2011 that toppled Hosni Mubarak, the health ministry said Sunday.

Three years after Egyptians rose up to demand the overthrow of Mubarak, thousands of demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday chanted slogans backing another military man, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, as police clashed with Islamists and activists elsewhere.

Three years after the start of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, thousands of Egyptians rallied in Cairo's Tahrir Square Saturday calling for another military man to become their leader.

The anniversary rallies came against the backdrop of deadly Cairo bombings in a country deeply polarized between supporters and opponents of Mubarak's successor, the deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

At least 29 people were killed in clashes in Egypt Saturday during rival rallies on the anniversary of the 2011 revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak, underscoring the country's violent polarization.

Three years after Egyptians rose up to demand the overthrow of Mubarak, thousands of demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square chanted slogans backing another military man, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, as police clashed with Islamists and activists elsewhere.