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French flags flew in the center of the city and a crowd reported to be in the thousands chanted, "Thank you, France" and "Long live François Hollande" as Mr. Hollande swept into town, accompanied by his ministers of defense, foreign affairs and development and flanked by the Malian president, Dioncounda Traoré.

But French officials and analysts fear that jubilation may shortly give way to increased ethnic tensions and violence — and it remains unclear if French or African forces will be sent to root out the Islamist fighters that have fled from Timbuktu and other northern cities, or when such operations might take place.

"It's going to take a few more weeks," Mr. Hollande said, according to news media reports, but he insisted that security responsibilities would soon be handed off to Malian and African forces. "It is not our role to stay," he said. "Our African friends will be able to do the work that was ours until now."

France has a force of about 3,500 in the country, and about 3,000 soldiers from several African nations have flowed in since the French intervened last month. European military officers are to begin training the divided and disorganized Malian Army in the coming weeks or months, too, but it is unlikely that the African or Malian forces will be prepared to conduct operations against the militants before the rainy season, which generally lasts through August or so, meaning an offensive into the countryside might have to wait until then.

In the meantime, human rights groups have reported a number of abuses committed by Malian soldiers since the French military intervention began in mid-January, including accusations that soldiers conducted summary executions of civilians suspected of militant ties.

Since the liberation of Timbuktu and the northeastern city of Gao, there have also been widespread reports of looting and attacks against Arab and Tuareg residents, with black residents accusing them of collaboration with Islamist fighters; some of the groups under attack have reportedly fled.

Pressing, too, is the political question of the Tuaregs, some of whom have long called for an independent state in upper Mali. Their uprising last year set the stage for the militant Islamists who initially joined with the Tuaregs and overran the north.

French officials are pressing Mr. Traoré, the Malian president, to start negotiations quickly with Tuareg rebels, most of whom have now disavowed the Islamists. The majority of Tuaregs, the French believe, will agree to remain in a sovereign Mali with more guarantees of political autonomy, and the French hope that a deal will lead to early national elections; Mr. Traoré this week announced elections for the summer.

The French Foreign Ministry has called on the Malian government to open talks with "legitimate representatives" and "non-terrorist-armed groups" in the north, especially the secular Tuareg National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, known as the M.N.L.A.

Mr. Traoré has said he is open to talks with the M.N.L.A., but only so long as it forgoes its demands for independence. French officials have pressed the group to do so.

"Mali must enter a phase of national reconciliation," said Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French defense minister, in an interview on France Inter radio last week. The groups involved in that process "must pronounce themselves against terrorism, very clearly, and against any desire for a splitting of Mali's territory," he said. "This country needs to return to democratic legitimacy. This is not yet the case." Paris would also like the presence of up to 5,000 United Nations peacekeeping troops, officials say, to further underline the international support for an integral Mali and further dilute the French presence.

Military considerations remain, though. In Washington, military and counterterrorism officials have applauded the speed and efficiency of the French-led operation, but they have also suggested that the militants may have ceded the northern cities with little resistance in order to prepare for a longer, bloodier counterinsurgency.

"Longer term, and the French know this, it's going to take a while to root out all these cells and operatives," Michael Sheehan, the Pentagon's top special operations policy official, told a defense industry symposium on Wednesday.

The Islamist fighters in Mali number between 2,000 and 3,000, officials and analysts estimate. It remains unclear how many have been killed in French airstrikes and ground operations, but a great number remain, likely occupying a network of caves and underground redoubts constructed in the mountains in the far north, near the Algerian border, analysts and officials say.