BRUSSELS, Feb 18 (Reuters) - The European Union will hold an international aid conference on Mali in May, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Monday.
France sent military forces to Mali in January after the country appealed to Paris for urgent military support to halt advances by Islamist rebels and defuse the risk of Mali being used as a springboard for attacks in Europe or north Africa.
Since the French intervention, Islamist rebels have been pushed back from the main urban centres of northern Mali into the mountains and desert.
"I told the prime minister today about the European pledge to organise an international donors' conference in mid-May to help the reconstruction of Mali," Barroso told reporters after a meeting with Malian Prime Minister Django Cissoko in Brussels.
"This is one more demonstration of our commitment and our engagement with the stability, unity, democracy, and development of Mali. The Malian people can count on Europe," Barroso said.
The EU unblocked 250 million euros ($333.77 million) in frozen development aid to Mali last week, and distributed a first tranche of 20 million euros.
The aid had been frozen since the country's March 2012 coup, but the bloc resumed cooperation after noting signs of democratic progress. ($1 = 0.7490 euros) (Reporting by Ethan Bilby; Editing by Alison Williams)
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A Tuareg soldier in the Malian army mans a checkpoint at the entrance of Gao, northern Mali, Friday Feb. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Malian soldiers stand by the remains of a motorcycle used by a suicide bomber at the entrance of Gao, northern Mali, Friday Feb. 8, 2013, It was the first known time a suicide bomber operated in Mali. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
The curator of the Askia pyramid holding the remains of walks Askia Mohammed, first emperor of the dynasty, built in 1495, walks in the mosque courtyard in Gao, northern Mali, Friday Feb. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A Malian soldiers tells journalists not to film the entrance of Gao, northern Mali, Friday Feb. 8, 2013, where a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed himself attempting to blow up an army checkpoint. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Tuareg soldiers in the Malian army man a checkpoint at the entrance of Gao, northern Mali, Friday Feb. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Tuareg soldiers in the Malian army mans a checkpoint at the entrance of Gao, northern Mali, Friday Feb. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Tuareg men who fear reprisals from the local population stay hidden in an undisclosed location in Gao, northern Mali, Friday Feb. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A Tuareg soldier in the Malian army mans a checkpoint at the entrance of Gao, northern Mali, Friday Feb. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Malian street children get their food from leftovers at a restaurant in Gao, northern Mali, Friday Feb. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A soldier patrols near a burning road block outside the paratrooper camp, home of the former president's Red Beret presidential guard, in Bamako, Mali, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Thomas Martinez)
Malian soldiers man a bridge at the entrance of Gao, northern Mali, Friday Feb. 8, 2013, where a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed himself attempting to blow up an army checkpoint. It was the first known time a suicide bomber operated in Mali. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
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