Leaders of Islamic countries pose in Saudi Arabia (Photo: Reuters)
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Monday urged its member states to make generous contributions at this week's donors conference on Mali to be held in Brussels.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, OIC Secretary General, launched the appeal at the opening of a ministerial meeting in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah.
Romano Prodi, the UN special envoy for the Sahel, attended the meeting which was held to discuss logistic and financial assistance to Mali, an OIC member, ahead of Wednesday's main donors meet.
The donors conference aims to raise funds to repair the damage caused by the war against Islamists in the African country.
Foreign ministers attending Monday's meeting included those of Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Mali, Burkina Faso and Djibouti.
Ihsanoglu urged authorities in Bamako to implement "the transition roadmap leading to the planned July 2013 elections as a way of returning normalcy to the country".
He also called for an "all inclusive dialogue and comprehensive national reconciliation".
The July polls are expected to hand Mali a legitimate government to lead it out of a crisis that has crippled the west African nation since Tuareg rebels launched a rebellion in January 2012 for independence of the north.
Their insurgency overwhelmed Mali's troops and led to a coup in Bamako. This opened the way for hardline Islamists to chase out their former Tuareg allies and seize key northern cities.
France intervened in Mali in January and has since pushed the Al-Qaeda-linked militants into desert and mountain hideouts, from where they are staging guerrilla attacks.
Ihsanoglu said that some armed rebel Tuareg groups were "in control of pockets of areas in" northern Mali.
"We therefore call on the Malian authorities to accelerate and widen the dialogue process by reviving the (Economic Community of West African) ECOWAS mediation in order to find durable solutions to the conflict and to further strengthen the credibility of the outcome of the transition," he said.
"The OIC stands ready to play a key role" in helping Mali "recover its full unity, integrity, security, stability and prosperity on a long term basis as a pillar of stability in the Sahel".
A UN force of 12,600 peacekeepers, to be responsible for stabilising the north, will be phased in gradually from July.
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