The International Support Mission for Mali (MISMA) could have at least 8,000 military personnel and police officers to help resolve the crisis in the West African country, a senior official of the regional bloc ECOWAS said Tuesday.

At a press briefing in Addis Ababa on the side lines of a donors' conference on Mali, the head of the ECOWAS military committee, Soumeila Bakayoko, said his committee has so far deployed 1,318 West African soldiers and 1,500 Chadian soldiers, more than a half of the planned deployment of 5,550.

Bakayoko, who is also Cote d'Ivoire's chief of general staff, said the projection of 8,000 officers for MISMA was justified given its 7,243-km border.

The funding for MISMA operations and the restructuring of the Malian army is projected at more than 959 million U. S. dollars, up from an initial estimation of 461 million dollars for MISMA and 336 million dollars for the Malian army.