By Tiemoko Diallo

BAMAKO, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Mali has appealed for international help to counter raids by Tuareg rebels in its desert north which it says are the work of "terrorists" trafficking drugs and arms.

Foreign Minister Moctar Ouane and other ministers told foreign ambassadors in a briefing on Saturday that recent attacks led by Malian Tuareg insurgent leader Ibrahima Bahanga also included fighters from neighbouring Niger.

Nomadic light-skinned Tuaregs in northern Niger and Mali, who staged an uprising in the former French colonies in the 1990s, have long complained of being neglected and marginalised by black-dominated governments ruling far away in the south.

Ouane called the attacks "acts of terrorism" carried out by drug-traffickers and arms smugglers and said all of these activities posed a threat to the security of whole region.

"The government of Mali knows that it can count on the political, diplomatic and material support of the countries and organisations that you represent," he told the ambassadors.

Bahanga's men have ambushed three military convoys in the last week in the desolate mountain region of Tin-Zaouatene bordering Algeria and Niger, taking several dozen soldiers prisoner and seizing vehicles and ammunition.

At least 13 people, most of them civilians, were also killed in recent days by landmines which the government says were laid by the rebels to cover their withdrawal after the attacks.

In Niger, the Tuareg-led Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) rebel group has killed more than 45 soldiers during a seven-month uprising in the uranium-rich north, prompting the government to declare a state of alert in the Agadez region.

The MNJ wants northern Tuaregs to have a greater share of the wealth generated by their region.

Malian Defence Minister Mamadou Clazie Cissouma said there were links between the attacks in both countries.

"The information we have indicates that Ibrahim Bahanga's followers have taken part in the events in Niger and that, vice- versa, foreign individuals from Niger and elsewhere have participated in attacks and mine-laying (in Mali)," he said.

Niger's MNJ, which the government there describes as "bandits", has denied any alliance with the Mali rebels.

Cissouma said the area around Tin-Zaouatene was a major trans-Saharan drug-smuggling hub.

It was not immediately clear whether the international support Mali was seeking included military aid.

U.S. military experts have trained armies in the Sahel, including in Mali, for several years as part of Washington's Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP), to bolster military cooperation and confront Islamic militants.

Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure has called for a regional conference on security in the Sahel. His counterpart in Niger, Mamadou Tandja, has asked Algeria, Libya and Sudan for support in ending the violence in the north.

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