EU condemns Mali violence, training mission 'urgent'

(BRUSSELS) - Clashes between Islamist rebels and government forces in Mali only reinforce the need for a planned EU training mission to support Bamako's troops, the European Union said Thursday.

EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton said that planning for an EU mission to train Mali government forces so that they could push the rebels out remained on course and the latest clashes "only increased the need and urgency to act."

She condemned an apparent bid by Islamist rebel groups to move south after they seized control of the northern half of the country in May.

Ashton noted that Brussels had called for dialogue so as to resolve the crisis in a "peaceful and lasting manner" and she "reiterated her support for Mali's interim president and its government," a spokesman said, recalling the importance the EU attaches to civilian control of the armed forces.

Fresh clashes broke out Thursday in Mali's central Mopti region, strategically located between the government-controlled south and vast tracts of northern Mali seized by Islamists in the chaos created by a coup in Bamako nine months ago.

Three armed Islamist groups -- Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), and Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith) -- control the northern zones of Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao.

Meanwhile tensions were reported in the capital Bamako.

Ashton recalled that the EU could impose sanctions on anyone seen to be trying to destabilise the political transition.