Sapin gave no further details of the agreement and it was not immediately clear what portion of Mali's overall debt to France the amount represented.
The crisis in the West African nation flared up in 2012 when thousands of Tuareg refugees from neighboring Libya streamed into the country in the wake of the violent toppling of Muammar Kaddafi.
Occupying the northern parts of the country the Tuages drove the Malian army from the territory and unilaterally proclaimed their independent state of Azawad.
Angered by the government's handling of the Tuareg separatist uprising, Malian soldiers then staged a coup that eventually allowed al-Qaeda-linked groups to seize the country’s desert north.
A French-led military intervention pushed back the Islamists a year later, but the remnants of the groups continue to carry out regular attacks, mainly in the north.
