West African leaders are due to discuss a proposal aimed at limiting presidential mandates to two terms at a regional summit on Tuesday, officials said.

Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the top UN official in West Africa, said in Accra that countries in the region without term limits would be encouraged to introduce them.

The talk by members of West Africa’s ECOWAS bloc was against the backdrop that several long-standing African presidents were approaching legal term limits.

Attempts to change the law or circumvent it had sparked unrest in Burundi and Burkina Faso.

Also, there are no term limits in Togo and Gambia.

Another official with direct knowledge of the discussion said leaders would be asked to commit to protecting clauses on term limits from any broader revisions of constitutions.

ECOWAS can suspend members who do not comply with regional measures.