Senior Libyan rebel official Mahmud Jibril is to attend a meeting of the Contact Group on Libya in Istanbul, Turkey, tomorrow, a Turkish diplomatic source said yesterday.

“Mr Jibril is expected tomorrow in Istanbul in order to participate in the Contact Group meeting, which aims to examine in detail the current situation” in Libya,” added the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Diplomats from the Contact Group were to review the latest developments in Libya as the rebels took control of most of Tripoli in a dramatic rout of loyalist forces and overran the compound of Libya’s defiant strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

The Istanbul meeting was agreed earlier this week in a teleconference that brought together US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and several of her counterparts, including Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Mr Davutoglu, who held talks with Libyan rebels on Tuesday in Benghazi, will open the meeting, in which Mrs Clinton’s deputy William Burns and Philip Gordon, the assistant secretary of state for European Affairs, will represent Washington.

US officials said Clinton later named her deputy to head the delegation. They also said Jeffrey Feltman, the US assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs, will attend the talks.

The diplomats will discuss a French offer to host a ministerial level meeting of the Contact Group in Paris, with a view to defining a plan for aid to the new authorities in Tripoli.

The Contact Group is composed mainly of countries taking part in the Nato air campaign in support of the Libyan rebels.

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