By Tiemoko Diallo

BAMAKO, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Nearly 600 rebels laid down their weapons in northern Mali on Tuesday, state radio reported, in the latest sign that military pressure and Algerian mediation may be helping end a rebellion led by Tuareg nomads.

Algeria has brokered several agreements between Mali's government and the rebels, who are calling for greater autonomy and development in the north, but the latest progress follows a military offensive launched last month against rebel bases.

"In returning to legality, the (rebels) have also returned to the armed forces a stock of arms and ammunition and two vehicles belonging to the army," Malian state radio reported.

"The equipment was symbolically handed to the Algerian mediator, who then handed it on to the Minister for Territorial Administration and local officials, who were very happy," the report added, saying 500 fighters and 78 officers took part.

The latest Tuareg uprising in Mali and neighbouring Niger follow similar rebellions in the 1960s and 1990s.

Mali's neighbour Algeria brokered a deal with Mali's Tuareg rebels in 2006 but the fighters, which have since split into several groups, have stepped up attacks on the army in the north of Africa's fourth biggest gold producer since early 2007.

Mali has applied military pressure on the rebels, mounting a series of attacks on rebel bases in the north. Unlike in uranium-producing Niger, which calls the rebels bandits and smugglers, Bamako has also held talks with the Tuaregs.

Most of the fighters who took part in Tuesday's ceremony were from the May 23 Democratic Alliance for Change faction, which has engaged in contacts with the government.

But some of those who disarmed came from Ibrahim Ag Bahanga's faction, which has proved more resistant to negotiations and which the army targeted in attacks last month.

Bahanga's whereabouts remain unknown.

It is not clear how many rebels remain in the lawless north, where analysts say the lines between rebellion, smuggling and organised crime have become blurred.

Fears al Qaeda's North African wing is profiting from the insecurity have increased since the kidnapping in Niger late last year of two Canadians, including U.N. envoy Robert Fowler, and the abduction of four European tourists on the Mali-Niger border last month.

Al Qaeda is widely believed to be holding them hostage. (Writing by David Lewis; editing by Alistair Thomson)

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