(LUXEMBOURG) - Extremist groups are gaining strength in northern and western Africa and pose an important security threat to the European Union, the EU's anti-terror coordinator warned Thursday.

The groups are using training camps in Mali, while trafficking in people, drugs and vehicles is a major problem in Guinea Bissau and is having knock-on effects in Mauritania, Gilles de Kerchove said.

"None of this is good for security in the region," he told reporters, after briefing EU interior ministers in Luxembourg. "Our security services are worried about this. It's on Europe's doorstep."

"Even if there is no operational link with Europe, our services believe there is a logistical link," he said.

The problem may be exacerbated by rebel Tuaregs, a nomadic people who have roamed the southern Sahara for centuries, and have staged uprisings in both Mali and neighbouring Niger claiming autonomy for their traditional homeland.

Drug and light arms trafficking are also common there.

De Kerchove warned the ministers that the EU must strengthen and improve cooperation with its partners in the Sahel region in northern Niger and Mali, and he urged them to study which financial options could be used to help.

"A European Union initiative in the Sahel region is becoming an urgent necessity, in order to arrest a development which threatens to spread rapidly," said his report, seen by AFP.

He said that a team of EU experts led would head to Niger, Mali and Mauritania over the next week to assess what their needs are in combatting extremist groups and organised crime.

"There is a need for help; Mauritania is asking for it, Mali as well," he said.

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