International - Mali's Foreign Affairs minister, Hubert Tieman Coulibally, said on Tuesday that his country's was not against the transformation of the African military mission supporting Mali (AFISMA) into a UN peacekeeping operation.
However, it should be on condition that its mandate and duration were set in its goals.
'It's obvious that the transformation of AFISMA into a UN operation will lead to an increase in logistics and personnel,' he said at a press conference in Brussels at the start of a ministerial meeting on support for the military mission.
Meanwhile, US vice-president, Joe Biden, during talks on Monday in Paris with French president François Hollande expressed his country's wish to see AFISMA transformed into a UN peacekeeping operation.
Among countries attending the meeting are Senegal, Chad, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire and the chairman of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Kabré Désiré Ouedraogo.
Pana 06/02/2013