Military leaders in Mali tried on Monday to brace for sanctions from neighboring countries, after recording further losses to Tuareg rebels in the north seeking to split the country in two.

A 72-hour deadline set by fellow members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) expired on Monday, with the threat of closed borders, reduced trade and a freeze in funds from the regional central bank looming.

To the north of the country, the rebel National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) - Tuareg rebels seeking independence for an area of Mali they refer to as Azawad - took control of the ancient city of Timbuktu on Sunday. The rebels, with their ranks and weaponry bolstered by fighters returning from last year's Libyan conflict, had also taken the regional capitals Kidal and then Gao on Friday and Saturday. None of the three settlements had fallen in previous rebellions.

An MNLA leader told Reuters on Monday that the rebels did not intend to push further south, saying they now aimed to consolidate control of the Azawad region.

Sanctions versus support

The junior officer who led the March 21 coup, Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, said that he seized control because of the democratically-elected government's poor handling of the northern uprising. Sanogo on Sunday pledged to set up a national convention to agree on a transitional government that would usher in free and fair elections, albeit without offering any specific details. He also announced that he would reinstate the country's 1992 constitution.

Sanogo's promises appeared aimed at fellow ECOWAS member states, as the captain seeks to avoid sanctions and instead secure support fighting the rebels in the north. He also told the AFP agency that he had dispatched envoys to the Timbuktu region to seek a temporary ceasefire with the MNLA.

West African leaders were set to meet in Dakar on Monday to swear in Senegal's new president, Macky Sall, with Mali likely to be discussed on the sidelines of the ceremony. Though ECOWAS has taken a firm line on a coup that ended 21 years of democracy in Mali, the group had also mulled some form of intervention against the insurgency over the past weeks.

"We strongly support Mali's territorial integrity and we will implement all necessary measures so as to end the rebellion and so that Mali can regain its territorial integrity," Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said ahead of the ECOWAS meeting in the Senegalese capital.

Also on Monday, former colonial power France issued a foreign office statement on its website advising any citizens not on essential business to leave Mali as a precaution.

"It's recommended to avoid all trips to Mali until order is restored anew," the foreign office statement also said.

msh/rc (AP, Reuters)