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28 January 2013 Last updated at 16:57 GMT

The troops encountered no resistance as they headed towards the city, where a building housing ancient manuscripts has reportedly been set on fire.

Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande declared that the joint forces were "winning this battle".

French and Malian troops have been pushing north in their offensive against Islamist rebels.
They seized Gao, north Mali's biggest city, on Saturday. Most militants seem to have fled into the desert.

Islamists seized the north of the country last year, but have been losing ground since French forces launched an operation earlier this month.

The advance comes as African Union (AU) leaders are meeting to discuss sending more troops to Mali.

'Killed for celebrating'
 
On Monday afternoon, a French military spokesman said troops had moved into Timbuktu after blocking roads surrounding it.

Meanwhile, a Malian army colonel told the AFP news agency: "The Malian army and the French army are in complete control of the city of Timbuktu. Everything is under control."

French army spokesman Col Thierry Burkhard had told the BBC earlier that "substantial airpower" had been used to support about 1,000 French and 200 Malian forces in their offensive against militants in Timbuktu.

He said French forces had taken access points to the city during the night
Timbuktu Mayor Halle Ousmane Cisse, currently in Bamako, told the BBC that he had very credible accounts of Islamist militants burning ancient manuscripts that have been kept in the desert city for centuries.

"The rebels set fire to the newly-constructed Ahmed Baba Institute built by the South Africans... this happened four days ago," he is quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

It was not yet clear how much of the building had been damaged, he said.

Once Timbuktu is secured, the French-led troops are expected to focus on the last rebel stronghold, Kidal, near the border with Algeria.

Kidal - home of the head of Ansar Dine, the main militant group in northern Mali - was bombed overnight by French forces, Malian officials say.

Once  Kidal is taken,  the first phase of the French operation will be over, our correspondent says.
The second phase will be to track down the militants to their desert hideouts, which could prove a much more difficult task, he adds.

Mr Fabius warned that the militants had adopted a "strategy of evasion and some of them could return in the north"
President Hollande later outlined plans for the operation, saying African troops would take over once French forces had retaken key towns.

The French would then return to their bases, and from then on their sole task would be to support and train Malian forces, he added.

Col Burkhard said a contingent of African troops was expected to make their way soon to Mali from Niger's capital, Niamey.

Some troops from Chad have already entered Gao, where thousands of people went onto the streets to celebrate the ousting of the Islamist forces.

French officials said they now had 2,900 troops in Mali, backed by 2,700 African forces in Mali and neighbouring Chad.

The African contingent is expected to be bolstered to 7,900, including 2,200 troops promised by Chad, AP news agency quotes a Nigerian military official, Col Shehu Usman Abdulkadir, as saying.
At an AU meeting in Ethiopia on Sunday, which is continuing on Monday, outgoing AU chairman and Benin's President Thomas Boni Yayi criticised the slow response of African states to the Malian conflict.

France's intervention was something "we should have done a long time ago to defend a member country", he said.