"The aim is to find a durable solution to the grave crisis engulfing Mali," said President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now...
which is mediating the negotiations.
Tensions remain high in the north of Mali after heavy fighting near the rebel-held city of Kidal, stoking concerns about the staging of planned nationwide elections next month.
Kidal, a town prized by the Tuaregs, has been occupied by the rebel National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) since the end of January.
But Mali's army has declared its intention to recapture Kidal before the presidential election scheduled for July 28, and deadly fighting erupted on Wednesday as troops advanced on the town.
UN Secretary General
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
's special representative to Mali, Bert Koenders, said he did not believe that the fighting would undermine the talks in Burkina Faso.
Koenders told news hounds in Bamako on Friday that he placed "great hope in the Ouagadougou negotiations".
The talks had been due to get under way on Friday, but were postponed at the last minute at Bamako's request, a diplomatic source said.
Armed ethnic Tuaregs from MNLA rose up to fight for independence for the north in January last year and overwhelmed government troops, leading frustrated mid-level officers to launch a coup that toppled elected president Amadou Toumani Toure.
Together with Al-Qaeda-linked bad boys, the Tuareg rebels seized key northern cities, but were then chased out by their former Islamist allies.
La Belle France sent troops in January to block an advance by the snuffies on the capital Bamako, pushing them out of the main cities and into desert and mountain hideouts.
The French then let the MNLA back into Kidal, raising fears in Bamako, 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) to the southwest, that Gay Paree wants to let the Tuareg rebels keep Kidal as part of an eventual deal for self-rule.