The fate of the Central African Republic president is hanging in the balance as regional leaders and his entire parliament gather in neighbouring Chad in a bid to end a spiralling cycle of sectarian violence.
A special summit of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) broke off at 2pm (AEDT), requesting that the Central African Republic's (CAR) interim parliament work through the night to hammer out a proposal on President Michel Djotodia's future.
All 135 lawmakers, flown in to Chad on Thursday, were given until 5pm (AEST) to find a solution that the 10-nation regional body would then discuss in a session an hour later, an AFP correspondent reported.
Chad President Idriss Deby Itno, Central Africa's perennial kingmaker, had opened the summit with stark words seen as a push to remove Djotodia, or at least to curb his powers.
"The CAR is suffering deeply from the actions of its own sons, who are dragging their country down into a war that jeopardises its future," he said.
Deby called for "concrete and decisive action" to halt the violence that has killed more than 1000 people in the past month.
Djotodia has come under fire for failing to stem clashes between the mainly Muslim former rebels who brought him to power last year and self-defence militias formed by the Christian majority.
"The solution must come from the Central Africans themselves," ECCAS secretary general Allami Ahmat, a former Chadian foreign minister, said Thursday.
"Neither ECCAS nor the international community have come to change the regime... It is up to those responsible (in Central African Republic) to decide the fate of their country."
France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, whose country last month deployed 1600 troops alongside an African peacekeeping force in its former colony, said it was not France's place to dictate decisions on the future of Djotodia.
"There are certainly decisions to be made, with regard to the political transition and the fact the state is paralysed. We shall see what our African friends decide," Fabius told France 2 television on Thursday.
"We are here to offer support."
Central African Republic sank into chaos after rebels of his Seleka coalition ended Francois Bozize's 10-year rule in March 2013.
Djotodia officially disbanded the group but some rebels went rogue.
His former fighters went on killing, raping and pillaging, prompting Christians to form vigilante groups in response and sparking a deadly cycle of revenge attacks.
