AFP - An international conference on Libya in Qatar announced Wednesday the creation of a fund to help Libyan rebellion and reiterated the need for a departure of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to resolve the crisis.
The first meeting of the Contact Group on Libya, in Doha, stressed the need to provide the rebels who hold the Eastern countries the means to defend himself, while refusing to explicitly include in the aid of military equipment.
The meeting, under the joint chairmanship of Great Britain and Qatar, was attended by twenty countries and organizations for nearly four weeks after March 19 of a multinational force under UN mandate to protect civilians.
The final statement, the Contact Group has decided "the establishment of a temporary financial mechanism" to provide the Transitional National Council, the political arm of the rebellion, "ways to manage aid and meet the needs urgent "areas controlled by rebels.
The Group also stressed "the need for (Colonel) Gaddafi to relinquish power" to encourage settlement of the crisis, the statement said.
The Gaddafi regime "must relinquish power," withdraw its forces from the cities and "put an immediate end to violence against civilians," said today's statement.
The text stresses the need to provide "material support" to people under rebel control. "The Libyan people need medicine and other means to resist," Sheikh Hamad assured, not to indicate clearly if weapons fell into this category.
The Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told the press that Rome, which will host the second meeting of the Contact Group, considered as non-offensive military equipment could be delivered to the rebellion.
European ministers showed differences on this issue.The Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vanackere, who represented his country and the Netherlands in Doha, countered that "the resolutions of the UN plan to protect civilians, but not the arm."
The head of French diplomacy Alain Juppe has excluded its share to help the Libyan rebels to arm themselves.It is planned to "help them obtain financing, to strengthen, but there was no question of arms supplies," he said.
In opening the meeting, UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged the international community to remain united, to prevent a humanitarian tragedy in that country in North Africa than six million people, nearly 3.6 million could need aid.
The military standoff between the rebels holding the Benghazi region (east) and forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli that entrenched in (West) created within NATO, which leads NATO operations, the spectrum of a stalemate.
Two major partners of the coalition, France and Great Britain have called for stronger action by NATO, which took command on March 31.
CNT, who attended the meeting in Doha, has claimed an increase in NATO strikes.
"We want more air strikes against tanks and missile launch sites" from the army loyal to Colonel Qaddafi, told AFP in charge of External Relations of the National Transition Council, Ali al-Issawi.
A meeting of the Alliance is scheduled for Thursday in Berlin to discuss operations in Libya, which must involve the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended the role of the transatlantic organization.
The United States who had taken command of the coalition as a first step, before announcing the withdrawal of their ground attack aircraft, revealed Wednesday that U.S. fighter jets bombed air defense always Jamahiriya.
On the ground, the rebel forces have retaken the town of Ajdabiya (east) to 160 km south of Benghazi, a stronghold of the insurgents-knot strategic road theater deadly fighting in recent days, but the units pro-Qadhafi maintained there their pressure by sporadic gunfire.
Two big explosions were heard Wednesday in Tripoli, whose origin was not immediately known, were seen AFP journalists.
Earlier, the official Libyan Jana stated that NATO forces have conducted raids on Wednesday and Al-Aziziyah Misrata (west) and at Sirte, the hometown of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, 600 km east of Tripoli.
The new Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelati Laabidi, named after the recent defection of his predecessor, came to his side to Cyprus where he will meet Thursday his Cypriot counterpart Marcos Kyprianou.
