France Says U.N. Vote on Mali Force Likely Next Month

The United Nations is likely to vote next month on a peacekeeping force for Mali, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday.

"We will move from the current framework... to a new diplomatic set-up, a peacekeeping operation which would probably be voted in April and implemented two months later," he told the National Assembly's foreign affairs committee.

He said the U.N. force could comprise up to 10,000 troops. The current African force AFISMA is composed of about 6,300 soldiers and is supposed to be taking over from French soldiers. Paris is due to scale back operations in Mali next month.

French forces launched a surprise intervention on January 11 in a bid to stop al-Qaida-linked fighters who had controlled northern Mali since April 2012 from moving southward and threatening the capital Bamako.

Islamist groups have largely been forced out of the main cities in the north and are now waging a guerrilla war against French, Malian and other troops seeking to help the government assert its control over the entire territory.