African leaders and international officials pledged $455.5 million at a donor conference Tuesday for military operations against the militants in Mali and humanitarian aid.Malian President Dioncounda Traore thanked the “entire international community” as nations offered cash or support at the top-level meeting at the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital.

However, while large donations were made - including over $120 million from Japan and $96 million from the United States - it was not immediately clear how much cash was earmarked for backing AFISMA, the key African-led military force.“I am glad to report that the overall amount that was pledged here reached the amount of $455.53 million,” African Union peace and security commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said, after the conference in the AU headquarters in Ethiopia.

In addition to the $455.5 million raised in cash - which includes funding for AFISMA, the Malian army as well as humanitarian aid - other aid was pledged in kind, Lamamra added.However, the pledges fall far short of the some $960 million the AU say is needed, which includes $460 million for AFISMA for one year, and a further $356 million for the Malian army. It also includes funds for some 2,500 additional troops that west African states have decided to add to AFISMA.

But diplomats said the amount raised was only supposed to enable AFISMA to remain operational until the United Nations Security Council approves logistical support to the force.A UN official said that the “important thing is to make a start”, while a top official from the AU - which contributed $50 million - suggested the UN would make up the shortfall.“If the AU can find $50 million, then the UN can find ten times that amount,” he said.

The conference came a day after French-led forces seized Mali’s fabled city of Timbuktu from Islamists as part of an offensive against the radicals who have controlled the country’s vast desert north for 10 months.African leaders and officials, as well as representatives from the United Nations, European Union and China also took part in the conference.French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the meeting had been to support the work “of restoring the sovereignty and integrity of Mali, prerequisites for lasting political stability.”

Mali’s president also called on the wider Muslim world to support efforts and show that “Islam at its heart does not serve as a cover for terrorism and organised crime.”Hundreds of Malians looted stores in Timbuktu on Tuesday, saying the shops belonged to “Arabs” and “terrorists” linked to the radical Islamists who occupied the desert town for 10 months. The angry crowd plundered stores they told AFP belonged to Arabs, Mauritanians and Algerians who they say supported the Al Qaeda-linked Islamists who retreated from the fabled town ahead of its recapture by French-led troops on Monday.
Meanwhile, Britain has offered up to 240 military trainers for the conflict in Mali, with up to 40 to be sent to Mali and as many as 200 to train English-speaking troops in neighbouring countries, a spokesman said Tuesday.

The 40 troops would assist an EU military training mission in Mali, while up to 200 personnel would help train soldiers from anglophone West African countries in a force created by the ECOWAS regional grouping, the Downing Street spokesman said.“Up to 240 is the current offer on the training force, split into two,” he said. “Today defence attaches from the 27 EU member states are meeting (in Brussels) to discuss the make-up of that training mission in Mali,” he said. “Our offer is that we are prepared to contribute up to 40 troops.”Meanwhile, the US military plans to set up a base for drones in northwest Africa to bolster surveillance of Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in the region and allied Islamist extremists, a US official told AFP on Monday.