"Several hundred"
Islamist militants have been killed since France launched an offensive
in Mali last month, the French defence minister has said.
Jean-Yves Le Drian said they had been killed in airstrikes and direct combat with French troops.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has said that France may begin pulling out of Mali as early as March.
In a newspaper interview, he said that "if everything goes as planned, the number of troops should diminish".
France has an estimated 4,000 troops in Mali and officials
from multilateral institutions and dozens of countries have been meeting
in Brussels to discuss how to replace them.
The defence minister said the last major town in northern
Mali to remain in the hands of the rebels, Kidal, was now under French
control.
Air attacks are continuing on suspected rebel hideouts north of the town.
'Significant number'
The militants died in French airstrikes on vehicles carrying
fighters and materials, or in ground fighting in the town of Konna at
the start of the campaign and later in the town of Gao, Mr Le Drian
said.
He said French troops had inflicted "great damage on the
jihadist terrorist groups", saying "several hundred, a significant
number" of Islamist fighters had been killed.
To put that in context, at the outset of the offensive French experts
suggested that the Islamist alliance could probably muster about 3,000
fighters overall, says the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris.
France has suffered only one fatality so far - a helicopter pilot killed at the beginning of the operation.
Mr Le Drian said Malian forces had also taken prisoners -
"some" high-ranking militants - whom he said would "have to answer to
Malian courts and international justice".
French forces continue to carry out airstrikes in mountains
north of Kidal where Islamists have taken refuge - and where some or all
of seven French hostages are being held, our correspondent reports.
Earlier, the French military said some 1,800 soldiers from
Chad had entered Kidal. Mr Le Drian said the town was now under the
control of French forces with "the support of African and in particular
Chadian forces".
Meanwhile, pro-autonomy Tuareg rebels in Mali said they had
occupied the north-eastern town of Menaka, but their claim could not be
verified.
Analysts say the rebels - who initially joined forces with
the Islamist rebels in their fight for an independent state in northern
Mali, but later fell out with them - are seeking to maximise their
territorial claim on the region ahead of talks.
Mali's future
The French intervened in Mali in January, fearing that
al-Qaeda-linked militants who had controlled Mali's vast north since
April 2012 were about to advance on the capital, Bamako.
In an interview to be published on Wednesday, Mr Fabius said French soldiers could start leaving Mali in March.
"We will continue to act in the north where some terrorist havens remain," he told Metro newspaper.
"I think that starting in March, if all goes as planned, the
number of French troops could be reduced," Mr Fabius told the daily
Metro.
Meanwhile, officials from the UN, EU, African Union, the
World Bank and dozens of nations met in Brussels to discuss Mali's
future.
They are considering how democratic elections can be held in
July, as well as the financing of an international military force and
humanitarian assistance.
"The point now is to win the peace," French Development
Minister Pascal Canfin said at the close of talks, according to AFP news
agency.
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