Speaking after a meeting with Romano Prodi, the United Nations special envoy to the region, Westerwelle called the situation in the west African nation "extremely worrying".
"The human rights situation, the security situation, the humanitarian situation, it's all really dismal," he said.
"For us, it's about European and German readiness for support, not about combat troops," added the minister, stressing this help could come in the shape of "training and development".
Western governments are fearful northern Mali could become a sanctuary for radicals after Al-Qaeda's north African branch and other armed Islamist groups seized the area following a March coup.
After a summit meeting on Friday, European leaders vowed to back up an international military force and train Malian defence forces.
"If northern Mali falls, if terrorist training camps are set up there, if a safe haven can be built for the terrorists of the world, that threatens not only Mali, the region and the north African states, but also us in Europe," said Westerwelle.
West African regional bloc ECOWAS has assembled a force of some 3,000 troops to try to retake Mali's desert north, an area roughly the size of France.
On 13 October, the UN Security Council gave ECOWAS 45 days to come up with a detailed plan on how it intended to recapture the vast, sparsely populated terrain.
"We are talking about a mission that would be operated by the African states and for which they would be responsible, on the basis of a decision of the UN Security Council," Westerwelle stressed.
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday judged the Malian forces "too weak to act" and said they needed help from outside.
Europe "could not accept that international terrorism has a safe refuge in the north of the country," Merkel insisted.
For his part, former European Commission president Prodi said that any Western action could not be a "direct intervention" and warned that "the situation in the north is still the most difficult."
Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge
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