BAMAKO - Burkina Faso, which is attempting to mediate an end
to the crisis in its West African neighbor Mali, on Saturday called upon Malian
President Dioncounda Traore to open direct talks with Islamist fighters in
control of the country's north.
Military experts from Africa, the United
Nations and Europe have drafted plans to retake control of northern Mali, which
fell to rebels in March after a coup in the capital Bamako created a power
vacuum.
Mali's neighbors fear the instability could spill over its
borders, and the United States and European countries fear the vast and loosely
governed Sahel region may become a new base for terrorist groups including al-Qaida. However any military intervention will not be ready until some time next
year.