Mali's rebel Ansar Dine says it is ready to talk with the government over the administration of Kidal, one of the key northern towns seized months ago after a military coup in the West African country.

The speaker of Kidal regional assembly, Homeny Belco Maiga, told Xinhua on Wednesday that currently, "the main demand of Ansar Dine is to discuss with the Malian government on the kind of administration that is supposed to be set up in northern Mali's Kidal region."

Belco Maiga was the head of a delegation of the Coalition for Mali which visited Kidal on Aug. 17-24. The coalition also went to Gao and Timbuktu, the other two key towns which fell into the hands days after the March 22 military coup.

"The Ansar Dine officials have requested to hold talks with the government and they insisted that they had never refused to engage in dialogue. According to them, this was the first time that Malians had come to really engage them as brothers," he said.

"Their main demand is to discuss with the current Malian government on a number of parameters: the kind of administration to be set up in Kidal, the kind of a judicial system that takes into account sharia (Islamic law) which should be used in the region and the developmental needs for Kidal," he said, noting that in the opinion of his coalition, Ansar Dine officials did not have separatist ideas.

Regarding the application of sharia law, the head of the Kidal regional assembly said Ansar Dine officials were not pushing for the full implementation of the law, but parts of it.

"The parts of sharia that they want implemented include separating boys from girls in schools. They also want Muslim teachers and not Christian teachers in their schools and they promised to protect everyone, whether Muslim or Christian, who came to bring development to Kidal," Belco Maiga said.

In its recommendations, the Coalition for Mali called for the restoration of the state in the occupied regions.

"The state could be restored, but under another form. The conditions for the return should be redefined," Maiga said.

He said Ansar Dine officials welcomed the return of NGOs, electricity and telephones.

"Today, the health services are functional in Kidal. The zone is well supplied but there's no money. Without salaries for workers and any other source of income, there can be no money," he said.

Northern Mali is controlled by two groups of rebels, the other group being the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), which has declared an "independent state of Azawad" without international recognition.