The International Monetary Fund agreed Monday to provide an $18.4 million emergency loan to Mali, a move likely to lead other donors to release more funds after having cut off aid following the March 2012 coup.

The IMF executive board approved the loan under the Rapid Credit Facility aiming to help the government bridge a huge budget hole as its fights off an Islamist insurgency with French help.

African leaders and international officials pledged $455.5 million at a donor conference Tuesday for military operations against Islamist 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.

Britain is considering sending about 200 non-combat troops to help the military operation against Islamist militants in Mali, with a decision expected within days, media reports said Tuesday.

This would likely include a small number deployed to Mali itself, as part of an EU training mission. A larger number would help train West African forces in the region to join the battle alongside the French and Malian troops.

Nigerian extremists have issued direct threats to France in retaliation for military action in Mali, the French consulate here said Monday, while warning its citizens against travel to northern Nigeria.

"A growing situation of insecurity is resulting from the intervention undertaken in Mali against the advance of terrorist groups," the advisory from the consulate said.

President Francois Hollande said Monday that Malian troops backed by nearly 3,000 French soldiers were winning the battle to recapture the north of the country from Islamists.

"We are winning this battle," he told reporters as officials said French and Malian troops had seized control of parts of Timbuktu, a bastion of radical Islamists occupying northern Mali since last April.

The African-led force for Mali will require a budget of $460 million, the African Union said Monday, promising to contribute $50 million for the mission to support Mali's army against Islamist militants.

"For the first time in the history of the African Union the budget will be used to support a peace operation," Ramtane Lamamra, AU's Peace and Security Commissioner told reporters.

French and Malian troops seized control of the fabled city of Timbuktu on Monday, a bastion of radical Islamists occupying northern Mali since last April, military and government sources said.

"The Malian army and the French army are in complete control of the town of Timbuktu. Everything is under control," a colonel in the Malian army said on condition of anonymity.

The head of the Red Cross has voiced his deep concern about the humanitarian situation in Mali, where French-led forces have been waging an offensive against Islamist groups in the north for over two weeks.

"Mali is one of the most profound humanitarian crises which we are dealing with today," Peter Maurer, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told Switzerland's SonntagsZeitung in an interview published Sunday.

French fighter jets bombed the far northern Islamist stronghold of Kidal in Mali and destroyed the home of the head of an al-Qaida-linked group, a security source said.

"There were air raids on Islamist bases in Kidal," 1,500 kilometers (940 miles) north of the capital Bamako, a Malian security source said, adding that the home of Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith) chief Iyad Ag Ghaly was destroyed.

French-led troops battling Islamist militants in Mali will soon be near the fabled northern city of Timbuktu, visiting French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in Chile on Saturday.

The French and Malian troops are currently "around Gao and soon near Timbuktu," he said in a speech to the French community of Santiago.