Mali crisis: West African leaders to meet in Ivory Coast

West African leaders are to meet 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.

The 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.

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.