Major powers met yesterday to map out what Washington calls an inevitable “post-Gaddafi Libya” as hundreds of millions of dollars poured into an international fund to aid rebels.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, meanwhile, urged Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to step down, “the sooner the better”, as he became the first head of state to visit the rebels’ bastion of Benghazi in eastern Libya.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and counterparts from Nato and other countries participating in air strikes against Col Gaddafi’s forces held their third round of Libya talks in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi.
“Gaddafi’s days are numbered. We are working with our international partners through the UN to plan for the inevitable: A post-Gaddafi Libya,” Mrs Clinton told participants, according to her prepared remarks distributed by aides.
“Time is on our side,” the chief US diplomat said, adding the international military, economic and political pressure was mounting on the Libyan colonel who has been in power for four decades.
“In the days ahead,” she said, “we have to coordinate the many plans taking shape and work closely” with the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) and Libya’s people.
“Each of these efforts helps us to protect the Libyan people and lay the groundwork for a unified, democratic, and peaceful future,” she said.
But Mrs Clinton offered no direct US financial contribution to the rebels, pledging instead another “$26.5 million to help all the victims of this conflict, including Libyan refugees”.
Such money will likely be distributed through relief agencies.
US officials said the United States would urge Arab countries to offer more funds to the rebel administration.
Mrs Clinton also said late yesterday that people close to the Libyan leader have been holding discussions about the “potential for a transition”.
The Obama Administration, already criticised by some domestic opponents for allowing Britain and France to take the lead in the Nato mission after an initial US blitz, appears to want others to take the lead in offering financial aid to the rebels.
Libya’s former foreign minister and envoy to the United Nations, Abdurrahman Shalgam, told journalists the NTC needs at least $3 billion over the next four months for current expenses. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Rome would provide the rebel council with loans and fuel products worth €300 to €400 million.
His French counterpart, Alain Juppe, said his government would release €290 million of frozen Libyan funds for the benefit of the NTC.
A member of the NTC said on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi meeting that an international fund aimed at helping Libya’s rebels had “become operational” from yesterday.
Meanwhile, Libya sought yesterday to refute crimes against humanity charges at the UN Human Rights Council, but states including France and Spain said they did not recognise Col Gaddafi’s regime.