COOPER INVEEN and CHRISTIAN AKORLIE LEADERS of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Sunday lifted economic and financial sanctions imposed on Mali after its military rulers proposed a 24-month transition to democracy and published a new electoral law. The bloc imposed stiff sanctions on Mali in January after the junta said it would not organise democratic elections the following month as initially planned. ECOWAS Commission President Jean Claude Kassi Brou told a news conference that the sanctions will be lifted immediately. Borders with Mali will reopen and regional diplomats will return to Bamako.  "However, the heads of…