Canada extends Mali airlift but cool on peacekeeping

March 14, 2013 Spacewar.com (AFP)

Canada's prime minister on Thursday appeared reluctant to supply troops for a Mali peacekeeping force but extended a loan of a jumbo jet to France to ferry military supplies to Bamako.

"We're obviously very pleased to assist with our plane and its team," Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a joint press conference with his visiting French counterpart, Jean-Marc Ayrault.

"It will remain there as long as we feel there is a need. In terms of our longer term engagement... we are not looking to have a combat military mission there," he added.

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

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

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has said the United Nations is likely to vote next month on a peacekeeping force for Mali that could see as many as 10,000 troops being sent there in June.

Sources said Canada will continue providing airlift support for French troops in Mali for a few more weeks, after already moving more than one million pounds (454 tonnes) of French military equipment to Bamako since January.

Harper said Canada will "certainly be providing development and humanitarian assistance." Beyond that, he said he is consulting with his cabinet, lawmakers from his party and the opposition on any new commitments.