The international community must give its full support to the United Nations to stabilize Mali, a senior Algerian official said on Monday, at the start of a regional security conference in the city of Oran.

"Mali has asked for the help of its partner countries to deploy anti-terrorist forces," said Mohamed Kamel Rezag Barra, presidential adviser for security affairs.

The threat of terrorism in Africa's Sahel remains high despite the weakening of Islamist groups in northern Mali, the European Union's representative for the region said on Friday.

Michel Reveyrand de Menthon told a media conference in the Senegalese capital Dakar that a French-led military intervention launched against al-Qaida-linked militant groups in January had not eliminated the danger.

The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday urged armed groups in Mali to join a new ceasefire accord between the government and Tuareg rebels.

The 15-nation council welcomed the accord sealed on Tuesday in Burkina Faso between the transitional Malian government and Tuareg groups, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and the High Council for the Unity of Azawad (HCUA).

Sweden's parliament voted Tuesday in favor of sending up to 160 troops to Mali on July 1 for a maximum of one year in support of a U.N. peacekeeping mission to the country.

Deputies adopted a proposal from the center-right government, which said that in "normal circumstances" the Swedish contingent would be around 70.

The Malian government and Tuareg rebels occupying a key northern city signed an accord Tuesday paving the way for presidential elections in the west African state next month.

Mali's territorial administration minister and representatives of two Tuareg movements signed the deal in Ouagadougou, capital of neighboring Burkina Faso, as the lead mediator in negotiations, Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore, looked on.

Mali security forces are detaining children they accuse of working with militant groups, a U.N. envoy said Monday.

Leila Zerrougui, U.N. special representative on children in conflict, called for international pressure on the Mali government to stop detentions and the use of under-age soldiers in the country's conflict.

Al-Qaida's north African branch confirmed that one of its top leaders, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, was killed in fighting in Mali, three months after France announced his death, according to a statement published Sunday.

Algerian-born Abou Zeid, considered one of the most radical leaders of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was killed "on the battlefield defending Umma (the Muslim community) and sharia law," according to a statement carried by the private Mauritanian news agency ANI. It gave no date for his death.

The United Nations on Wednesday added Mali to its child soldier list of shame while it said that thousands of children have been killed in the Syrian civil war.

Mali, where Islamist groups took over the north of the country until a French-led intervention in January, was the only new country added to the blacklist released each year by the U.N. special representative for children in conflict.

Burkina Faso's mediators hosting talks between Mali's government and armed Tuareg rebels said Monday they hoped for an agreement to enable elections to be held next month.

"We're counting on (Monday) to conclude an accord," Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Djibrill Bassole said after a weekend of talks between Malian officials and the Tuareg rebels who control the key northeastern city of Kidal.

Al-Qaida-linked militants in Mali remain a threat to all West Africa, U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon said in a report Sunday in which he also raised concerns about a planned election next month.

But Ban raised no objections to a U.N. peacekeeping force starting to deploy on July 1, even though he said it was poorly equipped and trained.