northern city of Kidal--the last stronghold of Islamist rebels--late Tuesday after an intervention that saw the French-Malian contingent regain control of the cities of Gao and Timbuktu in less than 48 hours.

Along with Gao and Timbuktu, Kidal was under the control of Islamists militants. While they held regional power, the rebels enforced a harsh interpretation of Sharia law and destroyed ancient mausoleums they considered heretical.

Malian army ensuring 'no ethnic warfare'

Meanwhile,...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard... US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland on Wednesday repeated Washington's call for Malians "to refrain from retaliating against Tuaregs or other ethnic minorities."

Reporting from Timbuktu a day after the historic city was liberated, FRANCE 24's Matthieu Mabin said hundreds of people attacked and looted shops(Kenya)] The United Nations is speeding up planning for a peacekeeping force in Mali as French and Malian troops steamroller into territory seized by Islamists, diplomats and officials said Wednesday.

The UN Security Council could start talks within days on moves that would probably incorporate African troops now gathering in Mali into a formal blue helmet force, diplomats said.

"There is increasing talk now of maybe moving straight to a UN peacekeeping operation. And that is one of the options the council will be looking at in the next few days," said one senior western diplomat.

UN officials said that planning for a peacekeeping force started months ago, before France intervened on January 11 to halt an Islamist advance on the Mali capital, and is now at an "advanced" stage.

After halting