PARIS — France carried out new airstrikes overnight against Islamist fighters in central Mali, as Paris pledged on Tuesday to commit more troops to a potentially protracted campaign against extremists pressing south from a jihadist state they have forged in the desert north of the country.
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French soldiers on Monday at the Malian Army’s air base in Bamako.
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Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius of France on Monday in Paris. He said terrorists had been blocked, but was later proved wrong.

The assessment that the conflict could be long and perilous appeared to be reflected in a call by France on Tuesday for Arab support to bolster an African force to fight the insurgents.

“We — not just the French, but all nations — have to combat terrorism,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said during a visit to the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf, announcing that donors would meet later this month, probably in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss financing an offensive against the rebels in Mali, Reuters reported.

“Everybody has to commit to oneself in fighting against terrorism,” Mr. Fabius said. “We are pretty confident that the Emirates will go into that direction as well.”

On Monday, the extremists overran the central village of Diabaly just hours after Mr. Fabius said confidently that France had blocked “the advance of the terrorists,” accomplishing its first mission in the conflict.

But the French defense minister acknowledged that the military situation was different. A column of militants had pushed to within about 50 miles of one of Mali’s largest cities, forcing France to evacuate its citizens in the area and bringing the Islamists a step closer to Bamako, Mali’s capital — closer, in fact, than they had been before French forces entered the fight.

President François Hollande of France, who was also in the United Arab Emirates for a one-day meeting to discuss trade and the sale of advanced French Rafale warplanes, said on Monday that French jets had “hit their targets” in strikes on rebel forces.

The impact of the strikes was not immediately clear. Seeking to turn back the rebels, France has conducted strikes using Mirage warplanes based in the central African nation of Chad and its air force has flown sorties from bases in France using Rafale warplanes, according to French news reports. It has also deployed attack helicopters against Islamist forces.

“We will continue the deployment of forces on the ground and in the air,” Mr. Hollande said. “We have 750 troops deployed at the moment and that will keep increasing so that as quickly as possible we can hand over to the Africans.” French defense officials said the French force would be increased gradually to 2,500 soldiers, backed by armored vehicles.

Mr. Hollande said a deployment of troops from West African states, to be supported by the French military, could take a “good week.”

For its part, the United States has long pledged logistical support but no troops. West African nations have promised 3,300 soldiers to fight alongside the Malian Army, but they must be gathered, transported, trained and financed, and there have long been concerns about their readiness for the task ahead. The European Union has promised 250 military trainers to aid the Malian Army, but it has yet to deploy them, a decision that may not come before a special foreign ministers’ meeting later this week.

The French mission is an ambitious one. Beyond pledging to stop the Islamists from pushing ever deeper into Mali — a more challenging task in itself than French officials initially suggested — France has also vowed to help restore Mali’s territorial integrity, an apparent reference to driving the Islamists out of their vast northern stronghold, an area twice the size of Germany. Having joined the war quickly after an urgent plea from the Malian government, France now finds itself facing a well-equipped force of Islamist fighters — with little immediate help from its allies to overcome them.

Mr. Fabius said on Sunday that the French engagement would last only a matter of weeks, but as French forces wait for their African counterparts to ready themselves, Mr. Hollande may find it hard to keep his vow not to use French ground forces in northern Mali.