The French foreign minister reassured Mali on Friday that France was not planning an "overnight" withdrawal of the troops it sent to liberate the west African nation's north from Al-Qaeda-linked rebels, reports GlobalPost.
Laurent Fabius was in Bamako to discuss the pullout scheduled for the end of April with government and military figures including Premier Diango Cissoko, who vowed that deeply-divided Mali was committed to holding July elections.
"The international community has its eyes fixed on you. Restoring security is essential but restoring democratic dialogue is also essential. It rests on your shoulders," Fabius said ahead of talks with interim President Dioncounda Traore.
France sent 4,000 troops to Mali in January to block n advance on Bamako from the north by Islamist fighters.
Paris is preparing to hand over to a UN-mandated African force of 6,300 in the coming weeks, placing a spotlight on Mali's poorly-paid, ill-equipped and badly-organised armed forces.
The Malian military fell apart last year in the face of well-armed Islamist extremists which seized the country's vast arid north in the chaos following a March coup.
The extremists terrorised locals with amputations and executions performed under their brutal interpretation of sharia Islamic law.
Read more of this AFP report published by GlobalPost.