West African leaders are meeting in Ivory Coast to discuss how best to coordinate military action in Mali.
They are expected to discuss plans to deploy African troops in support of French and Malian soldiers already in action against Islamic insurgents.
The French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, will also be taking part in the talks in Abidjan.
Islamist fighters on Friday withdrew from two towns in central Mali following French air strikes.
Officials say the Islamists have now left the southern town of Diabaly, which they took on Monday, while Mali's army has also recaptured Konna, which was seized by rebels triggering the French intervention.
Questions over foreign troopsThe first 100 troops of an African force landed in the capital, Bamako, on Thursday.
The soldiers from Togo and Nigeria are part of a long-planned West African force that will join the French and Malian armies in fighting the Islamist insurgents who took over northern Mali last year.
But questions have been raised about the African forces' ability to fight well-armed Islamist militants, says the BBC's West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy.
- Some 1,400 French troops in Mali, 900 troops involved elsewhere in Africa
- French Mirage and Rafale jets, Gazelle helicopters
- Chad to send 2,000 troops
- Nigeria to send 1,200 troops; Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger and Togo expected to send 500 each, and Benin 300
- Ghana and Guinea also to send troops
- UK providing two C17 cargo planes for French effort
- Belgium and Denmark also sending transport planes
- US to provide communications help
The regional troops are being deployed in the conflict under a UN Security Council resolution.
The original UN-backed strategy to reclaim northern Mali from Islamist rebels had France - among other Western powers - providing logistical support to an African-led force, adds our correspondent, but it is now clear that French troops will remain at the frontline of operations.
Nigeria will lead the West African force, with Chad, Benin, Ghana, Niger, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Togo also sending soldiers.
Nigeria says it will increase its forces to 1,200.
Chad has confirmed it will send 2,000 soldiers and it may also contribute its air force, considered one of the most effective on the continent.
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The BBC's Andrew Harding: "Civilians have said they have not seen any French troops on the ground"
France says it now has 1,800 troops in Mali after intervening initially with air strikes to try to halt a rapid advance by the Islamists.
Defence sources say France is likely to boost its troop numbers to 2,500.
Islamist fighters in neighbouring Algeria say they have kidnapped foreign gas workers in retaliation for France's involvement in the Mali conflict.
Islamist groups and secular Tuareg rebels took advantage of chaos following a military coup to seize northern Mali in April 2012. But the Islamists soon took control of the region's major towns, sidelining the Tuaregs.
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