Mali's government said Saturday it had named a new army chief of staff, two months after the country's new president took office seeking to restore stability following a rebellion and coup.

The government named General Mahamane Toure, previously the director of a peacekeeper training academy in the capital, to take over from Ibrahim Dahirou Dembele, without giving a reason for the replacement.

Insurgents launched an attack on the Malian army in the rebel-hit country's northeast on Friday, military sources said, in renewed fighting ahead of planned peace talks with the government.

The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), ambushed soldiers as they were on patrol at a market near the border with Niger, several military sources based across the country told Agence France Presse.

France said on Thursday that al-Qaida's north African branch may have killed two French journalists in Mali at the weekend, as the group had earlier claimed.

"We're in the process of verifying it, but it seems plausible," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French television, referring to the claim over the murders of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon in the flashpoint northeastern town of Kidal on Saturday.

Al-Qaida's African division claimed responsibility Wednesday for the murders of two French journalists in Mali's rebel-infested desert, saying they were killed to avenge France's "new crusade" in its former colony.

Ghislaine Dupont, 57, and Claude Verlon, 55, were kidnapped and shot dead by what French officials called "terrorist groups" after interviewing a spokesman for Tuareg separatists in the flashpoint northeastern town of Kidal on Saturday.

At least 35 suspects have been arrested during the last two days over the murder of two French journalists in Mali's rebel-infested north, local government and Malian security sources told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

Ghislaine Dupont, 57, and Claude Verlon, 55, were kidnapped and shot dead by what French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said were "terrorist groups" in the flashpoint northeastern town of Kidal on Saturday.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon vowed Tuesday to help the people of Africa's poor and conflict-scarred Sahel as he began a regional tour in Mali overshadowed by the murder of two French journalists.

Ban, World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim and top officials from the African Union, African Development Bank and European Union met Mali's president and key government ministers at the start of a three-day trip that will also take in Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad.

France said Tuesday it would stick to plans to withdraw most its troops from Mali, as the bodies of two French journalists killed in the country's restive north arrived in Paris.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said 150 French soldiers had been sent to join 200 troops already in the flashpoint northeastern town of Kidal, where Radio France Internationale (RFI) journalists Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon were killed on Saturday.

The bodies of two French journalists shot dead in the rebel-infested northern desert of Mali arrived home in Paris early Tuesday, as Bamako vowed to hunt down their killers.

The Air France flight carrying the coffins of of Ghislaine Dupont, 57, and Claude Verlon, 55, arrived at the Charles de Gaulle airport in the French capital from Bamako.

Three Tuareg and Arab rebel movements in northern Mali announced their merger on Monday to form a united front in peace talks with the authorities in Bamako.

The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), the Arab Movement of Azawad (MAA) and the High Council for the Unity of Azawad (HCUA) adopted a "political platform", a "negotiating committee" and a joint "decision-making body" after several days of talks in Burkina Faso.

Hundreds of Malian reporters marched through the capital Bamako on Monday in silent tribute to two French journalists shot dead by suspected terrorists in the country's north.

A management team from Radio France Internationale (RFI), where Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon had worked for many years, took part in the march as they made preparations for the repatriation of their colleagues' bodies.