The UN Security Council will hold a meeting Monday at France’s request to discuss the situation in Mali.

The UN Security Council will hold a meeting Monday at France's request to discuss the situation in Mali, while Paris got authorization to use Algeria's airspace for its operation in the western African nation.

Brieuc Pont, a spokesman for France's UN mission, said the meeting, scheduled for Monday afternoon, was a French initiative "to inform the council and proceed with an exchange of views between members of the council and with the UN secretariat."

Fighting raged in the past days after the Malian government and rebels failed to reach any deal in talks on a solution to the country's crisis.

On Friday, Paris confirmed its military operations in Mali to back government forces in fighting the advancing rebels, who had seized the central town of Konna and threatened the southern part of Mali, including the capital of Bamako.

French President Francois Hollande said that although the intervention had halted the rebels' southward advance, his country's mission was not over.

The French government has urged the UN Security Council to speed up the deployment of a 3,300-strong African intervention force, which is to back the Malian army's operation to retake northern Mali.

France's intervention in Mali has been backed by the European Union and the United States, while Britain is providing logistical support in the form of transport planes.