ali's interim President Dioncounda Traore met with a delegation of the Arab community in his country in a step to seek national reconciliation, the presidential press service said in a statement obtained here on Thursday.

"The meeting was an occasion for us to tell the president that we are very concerned and we are interested in social dialogue and national reconciliation," the head of the delegation, who is also the community's political secretary, Mohamed Fall, said after the meeting on Wednesday.

"The Arab community believes that through social dialogue and national reconciliation, it will be possible for us to achieve a vision of having one and indivisible Mali which will build its future on solid institutions and through shared responsibility by all its communities," Fall said.

"We have used the occasion to tell the president that as the Arab community, we are facing some frustrations and we are still waiting for him to take action to reassure our population about our safety," the political secretary of the Malian Arab community said.

"The Majority of our people are in the refugee camps and they still hope that they will soon be getting back to their homes, so that they can continue living together with other Malians on their national territory," he added.

In order to achieve peace in the war-torn West African country, he said, the Arab community will be involved together with the rest of the Malian communities, through consultative forums, to build a new Mali.

He noted that it will be good for all Malians to be allowed to settle on each and every square km of the national territory without any discrimination, since this will help to consolidate peace in the country.

Since allied forces drove Al-Qaida linked rebels from Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal, the Malian forces have not been allowed to enter Kidal by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a Tuareg separatist group.

A few weeks after the liberation, the Arabs and Tuaregs fought each other in the region of Kidal near the border with Algeria, leaving several people dead.

With the support of Mali's former colonial power France and troops from other African countries, the allied forces launched a counter-offensive in January, restoring control over northern Mali after the occupation by rebels for months. Fighting continues in northern Mali amid fears of a n Afghanistan-style guerrilla war with Al-Qaida's branch in North Africa (AQIM). Endi

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