Libya’s Foreign Minister yesterday said Tripoli has asked the African Union to convene an extraordinary summit to find ways for the continent to fight “external forces”.

“My delegation proposes the holding as soon as possible of an extraordinary session of the assembly of the (African) Union to identify the ways that enable our continent to mobilise capabilities to face the external forces which aggress against us,” Abdelati Obeidi said.

The minister was speaking at the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to the body’s Peace and Security Council as part of talks that began on Monday seeking a negotiated settlement to the Libyan conflict.

A delegation of the Libyan rebel Transitional National Council was also present at the talks in Addis Ababa. Also yesterday, Libya called on Russia to convene an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council on “the attempt to target” Col Gaddafi and bombardment of “civilian sites,” Libyan state television reported.

Moscow has increasingly criticised the international coalition for the air strikes on Libya in the past few weeks, saying they have gone beyond the UN mandate.

Col Gaddafi’s regime is accusing the United States, which launched its first Predator drone strikes at the weekend, of “new crimes against humanity” for deploying the low-flying, unmanned aircraft.

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