The Malian army has not regained control of the central Malian town of Konna, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Tuesday.

"At this moment, Konna has not yet been retaken by Malian forces," he told a press conference, contradicting claims made by the Malians on Saturday that they had taken "total control" of the town.

The French auto industry was hit again on Tuesday when Renault said that it planned to cut its staff in the country by 7,500 workers by 2016 to become more competitive and prepare for the hiring of others with specific skills.

The company said that it would shed 5,700 jobs through natural attrition, with the balance coming from the extension of an early retirement program to all employees due to retire in three year's time, subject to an agreement with unions.

French President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday that his government does not intend to keep forces in Mali, but will remain until security is restored and "terrorists" eliminated.

"France has no intention of staying in Mali, but we have an objective, that is when we leave there should be security in Mali, a legitimate authority, an electoral process and no more terrorists threatening the integrity of the country," Hollande told reporters in Dubai.

French President Francois Hollande, on a visit to the Gulf, Tuesday defended his country's intervention in Mali, saying it had prevented the African country from being overrun by "terrorists".

Speaking to reporters as he arrived at Peace Camp in Abu Dhabi -- his country's only military base in the region -- Hollande said it will take at least another week before an African force is deployed in Mali.

Tunisia's foreign minister said on Tuesday that his country was in principle opposed to all non-African military operations on the continent, as France pushed ahead with its assault on armed Islamists in Mali.

"We believe that the problems arising in Africa must be resolved within an African framework," Rafik Abdessalem said, addressing the French military campaign against al-Qaida-linked Islamist groups in Mali that began on Friday.

French President Francois Hollande called on Tuesday for pumping more investments in renewable energy projects to prepare for the post-oil era and to avoid global warming.

"If we don't spend ... we will have a catastrophe," Hollande told the opening session of the World Future Energy Summit (WEFS) in Abu Dhabi.

France is planning to triple the size of its force in Mali to a total of 2,500 troops, defense sources said Tuesday in the clearest sign yet that Paris is preparing for a drawn-out campaign in its former colony.

"There will be a gradual build-up to a figure of 2,500," a source close to Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a revelation that points to French forces playing a far bigger -- and inevitably far longer -- role in the campaign against Islamist groups in northern Mali than previously indicated.

France secured fresh United Nations backing for its military action in Mali and reinforced its ground forces with an armored column after driving Islamists from their northern bases with air strikes.

But the Islamists struck back in western Mali, capturing the small town of Diabaly from the country's weakened army, highlighting the daunting campaign ahead to restore order in the West African nation.

The jailed leader of Turkey's Kurd rebels, Abdullah Ocalan, condemned on Monday the killing of three Kurdish women activists in Paris, one of them a longtime comrade, the Anatolia news agency reported, quoting his brother.

"It was a very sad get-together," Mehmet Ocalan told reporters after a visit to the prison island of Imrali near Istanbul, where his brother, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), has been kept for 14 years.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Monday denounced the publication by Somalia's al-Qaida-linked Shebab of photographs of an alleged French commando chief killed in a botched hostage rescue operation.

"This is a particularly odious display," Ayrault told journalists in the northwestern city of Caen, after Shebab posted the photographs on its Twitter account.