Two members of Libya's rebel leadership, the provisional national council, are to speak before the European Parliament today, said the head of the liberal group Guy Verhofstadt.

Mahmoud Jebril, 58, Libya's former planning minister and Ali-Al-Isawi, 45, former ambassador to India, have agreed to travel to Strasbourg to meet the assembly, he said.

Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister, was able to contact the rebel leadership unlike European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

"I simply activated the liberal group's network of contacts," he told AFP.

Verhofstadt said he had contacted Ashton to invite her to meet the two members of the Libyan opposition.

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