Malta has officially committed itself to provide humanitarian assistance in a possible future EU mission to Libya.

There are still no concrete timeframes as to when such a mission will eventually be deployed because it is not yet known whether the UN will eventually request the EU’s assistance. However, during a conference in Brussels last Friday, EU government representatives were asked to pledge their contribution to the mission, dubbed Eufor Libya.

“Malta is one of the member states that has pledged its contribution to the operation,” an EU diplomatic official told The Times yesterday.

The other member states that made similar commitments during the conference were Portugal, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Finland and Poland, the official said.

Although it is not yet known what level of participation Malta is expected to contribute if the mission is deployed, government sources said this could include the deployment of soldiers to assist in the mission.

The sources underlined that the mission would be humanitarian and would not involve any military intervention in Libya, which was barred by the UN resolution in the wake of the uprising against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

“This is a strictly humanitarian mission and military assets will only be used to provide humanitarian assistance,” the source said.

The plan is to prepare for EU intervention in four likely scenarios: escorting humanitarian convoys; evacuating humanitarian workers; securing the port of Misurata; or securing long-term provision of humanitarian aid.

Since the start of the conflict, Malta has been insisting at international fora on the need to secure a humanitarian corridor in Libya so that assistance can be guaranteed.

Malta even offered to host a humanitarian operations headquarters.

Last month, the government said an Armed Forces of Malta officer had been sent to Rome to join the Eufor Libya preparations. The government also said it was keeping all its options open and would decide later whether to send troops to join the mission. A Commission spokesman said the EU was just preparing the background and the details of a possible intervention “but there are no real concrete plans on when this mission will be deployed”