France has claimed that al-Qaida-linked extremists have been defeated in the key city of Gao in north-eastern Mali.

The US airlift of French forces to Mali to fight Islamic extremists is expected to go on for another two weeks, Pentagon officials said, as hundreds of African troops join the French-led intervention.

Malian forces have regained control of the strategic town that was under extreme Islamist rule for four months, as the French-led military intervention pushed northwards in its second week.

French fighter jets pounded Islamist rebel strongholds deep in northern Mali yesterday as Paris poured more troops into the capital Bamako, awaiting a West African force to dislodge al Qaeda-linked insurgents from the country’s north.

Islamic extremists have seized control of the strategic town of Douentza, moving much closer to government-held territory in central Mali.