The message came from nations that are being pressed to join a French-led military campaign to shore up the troubled Sahel state.

"We want to send a clear message: we are not willing to accept the Wagner group entering the Malian theatre," Swedish Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist told a press conference.

"This is a change that we absolutely do not wish to see. Initiatives are also going to be undertaken by several countries to convey this to the Malian government."

One of the poorest and most unstable countries in Africa, Mali is struggling with a nine-year-old jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes.

France, the former colonial power, has taken the lead to bolster the country militarily, and is pushing its European allies to commit troops to a special forces unit.

But this strategy has become clouded by a military takeover in August 2020 that ousted Mali's elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Sources in the French presidency and security services say the junta is now looking at plans to hire a thousand operatives from Wagner.

The group has long suspected to be a paramilitary arm of the Kremlin and has already been accused of abuses in the Central African Republic.

Hultqvist was speaking after chairing a meeting of the European Intervention Initiative, a military scheme proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2017.

Intended to lie outside the structure of NATO and the European Union but also support them, the scheme has 13 members -- 11 from the EU, including France, Germany and Italy, as well as Norway and Britain.

French Defence Minister Florence Parly said it was crucial that long-standing efforts to strengthen Mali not be "jeopardised."

France has warned that its armed forces cannot work alongside "mercenaries" -- forces with no legitimacy or accountability.

Asked on Friday whether the arrival of Wagner personnel in Mali would lead to a pullout by French and other European forces, she said: "Our top priority today is to avoid the situation you just described. And that's why we discussed what we could do in order to avoid that."