Von der Leyen, speaking after meeting Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, called for efforts to shore up a 2015 peace accord in Mali's violence-hit north.

"Cooperation among the various groups who have signed up to this peace deal is needed in order to have progress," she said.

Germany is a member of a large UN peacekeeping contingent in the struggling Sahel country, buffetted by a jihadist revolt and ethnic violence.

Mali's problems began with a Tuareg separatist uprising in the north in 2012 that was then exploited by jihadists to launch an insurgency.

The extremists were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

Despite a 2015 peace agreement among various parties and the government, large stretches of the north remain out of the control.

Jihadist violence has spread to Mali's centre and south, often inflaming communal conflicts, and spilt into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Von der Leyen arrived in Bamako on Sunday for ceremonies to mark the handover to Germany of an EU military training programme in Mali.

Her visit coincided with that of Parly and the two met on Monday.

France has a 4,500-member military mission in the Sahel and is backing a scheme by five nations, called the G5 Sahel, to create a joint force to roll back terrorism and lawlessness.

Conceived in 2015, the force, bringing together Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, is grappling with funding problems, inadequate equipment and training.

It has carried out only six operations, with three more in the works.

"The international community is closely following the resumption of operations by the joint force. So everything must be done so that the operations can swiftly start again," Parly told journalists.

The two ministers were to meet later Monday with the G5 Sahel's Mauritanian general, Hanena Ould Sidi. He replaced a Malian, Didier Dacko, after the force's headquarters were targeted in a suicide attack in June.

Last week, Parly said that less than a quarter of the roughly 400 million euros ($455 million) pledged to the G5 Sahel by international donors had been forthcoming.