The new Maldivian government said Wednesday it would launch a probe into allegations that former president Mohamed Nasheed was ousted from power by a military coup.

Maldivian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Hussain Shihab, said Nasheed's successor, Mohamed Waheed, had appointed a three-member panel to investigate the February 7 "transfer of power" and subsequent violence.

"There is no time frame for them to come up with a report, but I believe they will begin their work immediately," Shihab told reporters in Colombo.

Former president Nasheed has accused the military and the police of a staging a coup that toppled him following three weeks of opposition-led protests.

Nasheed has said that hard-line Islamic extremists instigated the coup in the Muslim nation.

A former defence minister, Ismail Shafeeu, will lead the panel, Shihab said.

The appointment of the panel came amid growing international calls on the new administration to establish its legitimacy in the face of the allegations by Nasheed that he was forced to resign.

The Commonwealth, which also called for a probe, had carried out its own investigation last week and is expected to decide soon if the Maldives should be expelled from the 54-member bloc.

Nasheed, the nation's first democratically elected leader who came to power in 2008, has refused to recognise the new government and demanded early elections in a country best known as a luxury tourist destination.

The new president Waheed, who is from a rival political party, was Nasheed's deputy and took over on February 7.

Waheed had agreed to an Indian-brokered deal to conduct early elections, but no dates for polls have been announced.