Mali aid offers pour in, army chief sets sights on Timbuktu

International moves to aid the operations revved up with the US military airlifting French troops and equipment from France into Mali.

Mali's army chief Tuesday said his French-backed forces could reclaim the northern towns of Gao and fabled Timbuktu from Islamists in a month, as more offers of aid poured in for the offensive.

French planes bombed a major base of the Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) near Timbuktu, a defence ministry official said on condition of anonymity, as officials said a mansion belonging to Libyan former strongman Moamer Kadhafi was destroyed.

"In the course of the last French bombings, several jihadists died and the residence of Kadhafi which had become the headquarters of the Islamists was destroyed," a Malian security official said, adding there were no civilian deaths.

A local resident said: "Three or four other areas housing Islamists were also bombed," adding that three houses "used by drug-traffickers were targeted".

International moves to aid the operations revved up with the US military airlifting French troops and equipment from France into Mali.

"We expect the mission to last for the next several days," an AFRICOM spokesman, Chuck Prichard, told AFP in Germany.

The Pentagon said the United States would not demand payment from France for the use of US transport planes.

The US Air Force deployed a small team of airmen on the ground and C-17 cargo planes for five flights to Mali since Monday, ferrying 140 tons of supplies and 80 French troops, Pentagon officials said.

Italy said it would send three planes to Mali to help support French and Malian troops for a two- to three-month logistical mission. They include two C-130 transport planes and a Boeing 767.

And Britain said it would consider "very positively" any further French requests for logistical and surveillance support.

Britain has already loaned two C-17 transport planes to France and pledged to provide troops to a European Union mission to train the Malian army, but is not considering sending its own forces to the west African country.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon hailed France's "courageous" intervention but expressed fears over the safety of humanitarian workers and UN employees on the ground.

A UN-backed proposed African force in Mali needed "critical logistical support" to help it take over from French forces.

Ivory Coast said it would deploy 500 soldiers for the African force and Togo has boosted its troop allotment to at least 733 from 500 pledged earlier.

Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Arab Emirates are also providing transport planes or helicopters required to help move the African and French troops around Mali's vast expanses.