A leader of the Tuareg rebel group that has declared an independent state in northern Mali said Monday that a first official meeting between the rebels and Malian authorities had gone well.

"We've had official contact with the Malian delegation that we can describe as positive," Hamma Ag Mahmoud, a member of the political branch of the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA), told AFP after the meeting late Sunday in Mauritanian capital Nouakchott.

The meeting "enabled us to confirm our willingness to have a dialogue, but we did not get into the details," he added.

He said the MNLA would not reverse its declaration of an independent state of Azawad, but added: "Independence can be negotiated within the framework of a Malian federation."