3 month trans-sahara exped - safety concerns

[pawperso]

I'm hoping to set off from the UK in March 2009 and spend 3 months getting thoroughly lost in various countries in North Africa under the guise of "crossing the Sahara".

The more I have tried to research a route the more complicated things appear and just as I thought I might have a plausible (very) rough draft of a route, I'm starting to think actually traveling through some of the countries may well be a little unwise.

Basically I want to enter Morocco then go: Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Tunisia, Europe.

Ideally I'd like to go through to Egypt too, but the carnet deposit kills that idea.

At the moment what I'm reading is making me think that Niger, Algeria and Mali should really be avoided completely, even with a strong sense of adventure.

I dont particularly want to go to Niger (actually I do, but I could live without it I guess) but really want to get to Libya and thought it was a better option than the Mali/Algeria border region.

With Libya's land borders closed things are frustratingly difficult.

So what does everyone think of the route and the safety warnings about travel to Niger, Algeria and Mali. I'm teetering between deciding "cancel it" and "sod it, lets go anyway".