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The BBC's Andrew Harding says French troops have been welcomed by people in the capital
French troops are set for their first major ground combat with Islamist rebels in Mali after heading out from the capital, Bamako.
A convoy of about 30 armoured vehicles set out on Tuesday for Diabaly, 350km (220 miles) to the north, a town captured by the rebels the day before.
The first units of an African force are set to arrive on Wednesday to bolster the French.
France intervened last Friday to halt the Islamists' drive to the capital.
'Determined adversary'Islamists entered Diabaly on Monday, taking the town from Malian forces. French war planes have since attacked the rebel positions.
French army chief Edouard Guillaud said on Wednesday that ground operations had now begun.
French press review
As French ground troops multiply in Mali, the country's papers are asking how France can avoid getting bogged down.
"We know how military interventions start off," Alain Frachon writes in the centre-left Le Monde. "We never know how they end." He warns against the eventual "temptation to take in hand a failed or failing state in order to try to rebuild it".
"In this unfamiliar desert, French helicopters and Islamist pick-up trucks are fighting a typical 21st Century war," Christophe Barbier writes in the centre-right L'Express. He recalls the words of Rene Caillie, the French explorer, returning from Timbuktu in 1828: "My adventures are a dream, are they not?" Barbier concludes: "Let's hope those of Francois Hollande do not turn into a nightmare."
France, writes Nicolas Demorand in the centre-left Liberation, has stopped Mali becoming a "rogue state". That is the most it can achieve, he argues, and it "must now specify - if it knows at all - when, how, and to whom the heavy burden of controlling the situation will fall in its place".
He told Europe 1 radio: "In the coming hours - but I cannot tell you if it's in one hour or 72 hours - yes, of course, we will be fighting them directly."
The BBC's Mark Doyle in Bamako says the convoy of armoured personnel carriers set out on Tuesday with guns at the ready - at some points along the road, people gathered to wave at the French soldiers.
Residents of Niono, 70km south of Diabaly, say the French arrived overnight.
One Malian source told Reuters news agency the "final assault is only a matter of time".
However, the French may face a difficult situation in Diabaly.
One eyewitness, Ibrahim Komnotogo, told the Associated Press news agency: "The jihadists have split up. They don't move around in big groups. They are out in the streets, in fours and fives and sixes, and they are living inside the most habituated neighbourhoods."
Adm Guillaud said France would do all it could to ensure civilians were not targeted. "When in doubt, we will not fire," he said.
Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has admitted that Malian forces around Diabaly have been struggling to combat the well-armed rebels.
He also admitted that the central town of Konna had not been recaptured by government forces as had earlier been reported.
"Start Quote
End QuoteUnless the areas bombed are subsequently occupied on the ground, the opponents of the French and the Malian government who are not killed could regroup"
He said: "We are up against a determined adversary that is well-equipped and has not given up, but we have hit them hard with our strikes, including those deep in their territory."
Our correspondent says the French or their allies in the Malian army need to take control of both Konna and Diabaly if their campaign is to advance.
France has some 800 troops on the ground in Mali and defence sources said their numbers were expected to increase to 2,500.
However, France has been pushing hard for the deployment of a West African regional force.
Regional military commanders began a meeting in Bamako on Tuesday, agreeing the swift deployment of troops.
A company of 190 Nigerians will be the first to arrive, on Wednesday.
Nigeria will lead the force, with 900 troops. Benin, Ghana, Niger, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Togo have also pledged to take part.
The West African force will total about 3,300 under a UN Security Council resolution.
The UK has provided transport planes, and on Wednesday Germany joined the operation by also providing logistical support with two Transall transport planes.
Tuareg offerIn March and April last year, Islamist and secular Tuareg rebels overran the main population centres in northern Mali. Soon the Islamists, some with links to al-Qaeda, took control and imposed a hardline form of Sharia.
Foreign forces in Mali
- Some 800 French troops in Mali, 900 troops involved elsewhere in Africa
- French Mirage and Rafale jets, Gazelle helicopters
- Nigeria to send 900 troops; Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger and Togo expected to send 500 each, and Benin 300
- Ghana, Guinea and Chad also to send troops
- UK providing two C17 cargo planes for French effort
- Belgium and Denmark also sending transport planes
- US to provide communications help
While a West African force was being planned with the aim of bringing the north back under the control of the Malian government, the rebels began moving further south.
It was the rebel capture of Konna last Thursday that prompted France's military intervention.
French air strikes have since blocked the rebels, who have moved back to an area between Douentza and Gao.
Air raids have also reportedly sent the rebels fleeing from two of the main northern towns, Gao and Timbuktu.
On Wednesday, an official of the separatist Tuareg organisation, the MNLA, in northern Mali, said the group was ready to join the fight against their former allies, the Islamist militants.
Speaking to the BBC, Moussa Ag Assarid, did not go as far as saying the MNLA would fight alongside French forces but said his group was against al-Qaeda and terrorism.
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