U.N.'s Mali task is state-building as much as peacekeeping

(Reuters) The U.N. is being dragged into a mission in Mali likely to involve state-building as much as peacekeeping, as France looks to reduce its military footprint in the vast and poor Sahel state after defeating an Islamist rebellion.

The day Mali elected a new president this month, the French general who led the military campaign to push the rebels from its desert north flew back home, his job done.

That evening, the United Nations official now responsible for helping to rebuild the West African nation landed at the same airport in Bamako after visiting the cradle of last year's rebellion, his task only just beginning.

France's successful seven-month-old campaign to destroy the Islamist enclave has killed hundreds of fighters linked to al Qaeda and scattered others far across the Sahara.

But with Paris keen to wrap up "Operation Serval" quickly, and Mali's West African neighbors unable to keep the peace there alone, the U.N. faces what some people see as an open-ended mission with precious few resources.

How long the planned 12,600 U.N. peacekeeping force will take to roll out fully remains unclear. It is even less clear how suited the multinational mission is to a task which includes helping the government to reestablish itself in the north and eventually handing responsibility for security to Mali's army.

"We still need helicopters, engineers and transport planes and it is important that countries commit to supply that," said Bert Koenders, the U.N. Special Representative to Mali.

"The U.N. is here to facilitate the return of the state to north Mali and provide security until the army is ready to take over ... It's a mission which is likely to last a few years."

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