With only one month to go before the presidential elections take place in Mali, the UN refugee agency is helping neighboring countries deal with refugees who will be voting outside their home country, a UN spokesman told reporters here.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) " said on Friday that it is strengthening its role in helping neighboring countries deal with out-of-country voting for Malian refugees before the 28 July presidential elections in Mali," said Eduardo del Buey, deputy spokesperson for UN secretary-general, at the daily briefing.

According to him, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania together host 175,000 Malian refugees from the recent conflict there.

"The UN Refugee Agency is supporting the participation of refugees in these elections, although its role is limited to a strictly humanitarian and non-political one," del Buey said.

He noted that the agency is providing refugees with practical information on their right to participate in the elections and it is also providing some transportation.

The elections are considered a key step to restore Mali's territorial integrity and constitutional rule after a military coup on March 22, 2012, which led to the months-old occupation of northern Mali by Al-Qaida linked rebels.

With the backing of Mali's former colonial power France and regional countries, the rebels have been driven out of major towns in the north since January, with the government restoring administration over the war-torn north.

UNHCR has previously facilitated out-of-country voting by refugees in South Sudan in 2011, in Iraq in 2010 and in Afghanistan in 2004, del Buey added. Enditem

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