EU nations offer new help to push back Mali jihadists

(BRUSSELS) - European Union nations stepped up offers of help in the campaign against Mali's Islamist rebels Wednesday, with Germany and Italy pledging logistical support a day ahead of key crisis talks.

Anti-terrorist measures, economic aid and funding to the tune of half a billion euros for an African intervention force in Mali will be at the centre of talks between EU foreign ministers Thursday.

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that terror in Mali was "a threat not just for Africa but also for Europe", armed Islamists claimed a deadly attack in Algeria in reprisal for France's offensive in Mali.

Islamists said they were holding 41 hostages at a southern Algerian gas field, including Americans, French, British and Japanese, after having killed two foreigners.

"We are members of Al-Qaeda and we came from northern Mali," one told AFP by telephone.

Merkel meanwhile pledged two transport planes for an African force and Italy offered logistical support, the latest EU nations after Belgium, Britain and Denmark to offer help since France launched an air and ground offensive against Islamist rebels who control Mali's north and had threatened to advance on the capital, Bamako.

EU help in tightening up security in Mali and elsewhere in West Africa is one of many new moves to be discussed by the 27-nation bloc's foreign ministers at the Mali crisis talks.

"We need to help the government in Bamako increase the level of security and also help Mali's neighbours," said a senior EU official.

According to documents seen by AFP that will be put to ministers, measures "to mitigate the threat of terrorist attacks against Mali" are high on the agenda, with 5,100 French civilians and 700 other European expatriates still there.

Mali's Foreign Minister Tieman Coulibaly meanwhile will be under pressure from his EU peers to present a credible roadmap towards elections so as to free up almost 250 million euros in economic aid to Mali that was suspended after a March 2012 coup.

It was the coup by Mali's military that enabled the Islamists to step into a power vacuum and occupy the country's arid northern reaches.

The jihadist fighters entrenched there, the EU documents say, "are more resilient than expected" and are "well trained, and well equipped".

To help Mali's embattled army of some 4,000 troops, the key decision expected at the talks is a deal to speed up the dispatch of 500 or more EU troops -- including 200 to 250 trainers -- to train and restructure the military.

Discussed over many months, original planning for the EU training mission (EUTM) to Mali has been radically upset by the Islamist offensive and French response.

With the 3,000 Malian troops originally to have been trained currently at the front, EU planners are to fly in to Bamako this weekend to assess security risks and reorganise the training plan.

"The situation has changed, but the mission must go ahead. There's still a need for an efficient army that's under civilian control," said an EU official speaking on condition of anonymity.

The EU training mission, expected to launch mid-February, is to be headed by French General Francois Lecointre, with eight to 12 EU nations so far agreeing to take part. It will be given a 15-month mandate at a cost of 12 million euros.

It will have no combat role and no mentoring role, unlike trainers in Afghanistan.

EU nations will also look at helping prop up the Malian army with equipment worth around 130 million euros, as "it doesn't have a single helicopter and lacks telecommunications equipment, uniforms, vehicles, et cetera," said one EU diplomat.

The foreign ministers will also discuss financial and logistical support for an African-led international support mission in Mali -- AFISMA -- approved by the United Nations and which is set to deploy in the next days.

This 3,300-strong force is in need of up to 200 million euros -- though the United States, Canada and other nations are expected to pick up a substantial part of the tab.