The United States is likely to eventually resume direct support for Mali's military, but only after full restoration of democracy through elections, the head of a visiting US Congress delegation said.
Senator Christopher Coons, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Africa, led the first American congressional visit to the West African nation since France sent a military force there last month to halt the advance of al Qaeda-allied islamists.
The United States and United Kingdom have been providing airlift and refueling support for the French-led operation involving hundreds of French and African troops that has driven the Islamist rebels from a string of northern Malian towns in the last five weeks.
Washington has also been sharing intelligence to back the operation, but ruled out sending its own ground troops mainly because of Afghanistan and Iraq's experiences as well as its battered image in the Islamic world.
Coons, heading a four-member delegation from the US Senate and House of Representatives, said both French and African military commanders were happy with the support that Washington was providing, but he indicated they might welcome more.
Asked if increased US support for the military intervention could materialize, Coons said US law prohibited direct assistance to Mali's armed forces because of the military coup there last year that toppled the elected government.
"After there is a full restoration of democracy, I would think it is likely that we will renew our direct support for the Malian military," Coon said.
French and African forces are hunting the Islamist insurgents who have retreated to Mali's remote Northeast, and Malian interim President Dioncounda Traore has said presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in July.
Coons said al Qaeda's North African wing AQIM and its allies in Mali and elsewhere posed a "very real threat" to Africa, the United States and the wider world and he said the United States wanted to be part of the response to this security challenge.
Before last year's coup in Mali - led by a US-trained Malian army captain - the American military had been providing combat training to several Malian army battalions.
But this was quickly suspended after the coup, which plunged Mali into chaos and led to the occupation of its Saharan north by jihadists who hijacked a rebellion by Tuareg separatists.
Although the French-led offensive has driven the bulk of the Islamist forces northwards back up to the Algerian border, there are fears their fighters and sympathizers could strike back with reprisal attacks in Africa and elsewhere.
The election in Mali will be largely determined by Western whims and caprices. France, UK and America's energy interest will determine who wins or not and this will likely contribute to more insurgencies which has always characterised Western interference in nations. This could ruin France's international accolade though they do not care for as long as the uranium keeps coming.
