EU governments agree on military training mission to Mali

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union governments agreed on Thursday to go ahead with a plan to send hundreds of military personnel to train Malian government forces in fighting Islamist rebels, as a civil war Mali spilled across its borders, an EU diplomat said.

Senior diplomats from the EU's 27 governments took a decision to set up the training mission, which was already in the planning in recent weeks, shortly before an emergency meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers in Brussels to discuss the crisis in the Sahara.