NIAMEY - France and five allied Sahel countries have reached a "turning point" in their fight against Islamist militants, President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday, wrapping up a weekend visit to the troubled region.

"The coming weeks will be absolutely decisive in the fight we are waging against terrorism," Macron said in the Niger capital Niamey, where he paid homage to 71 Nigerien soldiers killed in an Islamist attack earlier this month.

"We are at a turning point in this war," he said.

France and the five Sahel countries hosting French troops had to "define the military, political and development goals of the next six, 12 and 18 months much more clearly" at a summit in southwestern France next month, he added.

Macron began his visit to the region in Ivory Coast on Friday, celebrating Christmas with French soldiers stationed there.

The role of former colonial power France in the region has come under the spotlight following a renewed jihadist insurgency that has raised questions about the effectiveness of French and UN troops there.

"We need the political conditions to accompany the military work we do," he told the 4,500-strong French contingent in Ivory Coast.

In Niamey, he said: "I see opposition movements, groups, who denounce the French presence as a neo-colonial, imperialist."

Complaining of a lack of "clear political condemnation of anti-French feelings", Macron said he was loath to send soldiers to countries where their presence was not "clearly wanted".

The leaders of the anti-jihadist G5 Sahel alliance grouping Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Chad are to meet in Pau, France, on January 13.

There, they would clarify the "political and strategic framework" of their operations, said Macron.

Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou said the summit would "launch an appeal for international solidarity so that the Sahel and France are not alone in this fight".

Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on Saturday told French television the G5 leaders would deliver a message demanding a "respectable and respectful" relationship with France. -AFP