REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEW YORK -- Every day lost in the implementation of Mali's peace agreement is a day gained for extremist and terrorist groups that have bet heavily on the failure of the process, the UN peacekeeping chief said here Tuesday.

Herve Ladsous, the UN under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, stressed that the Malian government and the armed groups who signed the deal must establish a timeline to resolve all pending issues.

When briefing the UN Security Council on the current situation in Mali, Ladsous reported significant progress in recent weeks toward implementing the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation, including steps toward establishing interim administrative arrangements in north Mali and the creation of two new regions -- Taoudenni and Menaka.

This came on the heels of a Jan. 18 meeting in Algiers, Algeria, of the Agreement Monitoring Committee, and a meeting convened by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on Feb. 27 in Bamako, Mali, where the parties to the peace agreement had set an implementation timetable for March and April.