Government forces in Mali say they have regained territory from Islamist militants following air strikes by French military aircraft.
The development came after France announced it had begun military operations in support of the government in its former colony in west Africa.
President Francois Hollande said it had done so because Mali's very existence as a state was under threat.
Armed groups, some linked to Al-Qaeda, took control of northern Mali in April.
West African states are preparing to send troops to Mali as an international campaign to crush rebels gathered pace.
A French pilot died on Friday when his helicopter was shot down near the central Mali town of Mopti.
The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has for months lobbied world powers to back its plan to end the nine-month occupation of Mali's north by Islamist groups.
Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara currently holds the rotating chairmanship of ECOWAS.
"The mandate for the deployment was signed by the president yesterday," said Ali Coulibaly, Ivory Coast's African Integration Minister.
"Monday by the latest, the troops will be there or will have started to arrive."
Malian soldiers recaptured a central town on Friday after France intervened with air strikes to halt a southward advance by the Islamist insurgents.
Western governments, particularly former colonial power France, voiced alarm after the rebel alliance captured the town of Konna on Thursday in their first major drive towards the capital Bamako since seizing control of the north last spring.
Mali's government appealed for urgent military aid from France.
French military operations in support of the Malian army against Islamist rebels "will last as long as necessary," France's UN ambassador Gerard Araud wrote in a letter to the Security Council.
France's intervention immediately tipped the military balance of power, with Malian government forces quickly sweeping back into Konna, according to local residents.
The forceful French military action in Mali came as an attempt to rescue a French hostage in Somalia failed.
The French Ministry says the incidents are not connected.
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