The European Union has offered to host an international meeting on Mali next month, a spokesman for EU foreign police chief Catherine Ashton said on Monday, Jan 21, according to Reuters.

"We have offered to host on Feb 5 a ministerial meeting of the international support and follow-up group on the situation in Mali. That will be organized together with the African Union, ECOWAS (regional West African grouping) and the United Nations and will be organized in Brussels," spokesman Michael Mann told a regular European Commission briefing.