France urges EU sanctions against Mali

France is to press the European Union to agree to sanctions against Mali after its military-dominated leadership shelved a timetable for elections, the French foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Jean-Yves Le Drian said in an interview that Mali risked being "suffocated" unless the military junta of the West African country lived up to its responsibilities and stopped seeking to "fool" the country's partners.

Le Drian, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said that the EU measures would be in line with the unprecedented sanctions agreed with West African economic bloc ECOWAS which Paris has strongly supported.

"We are going to propose to apply these sanctions at a European level, both those against Malian leaders but also the economic and financial measures," Le Drian said.

He added that the issue would be discussed by EU foreign ministers at a meeting in the French city of Brest from Thursday, adding that Mali was now a "European issue".

France is moving to draw down forces deployed in Mali and the region to fight a jihadist insurgency in favour of a multinational force called Takuba including troops from EU states. 

As well as closing borders and imposing a trade embargo, Mali's regional neighbours also cut off financial aid and froze the country's assets at the Central Bank of West African States. 

The move followed a proposal by Mali's interim government last month to stay in power for up to five years before staging elections, despite international demands that it respect a promise to hold elections in February.