"We execute this operation in a very high tempo," NATO Brigadier General Mark van Uhm said Tuesday at a NATO news conference in Brussels.

NATO aircraft during the past days destroyed tanks, bunkers and communication lines used by the Gadhafi regime throughout the country, with particular attention to forces located near the contested cities Ajdabiya, Brega and Misrata, van Uhm said.

"We know we are having an effect. ... With the assets we have, we're doing a great job," he said.

His remarks came shortly after French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe had criticized NATO in a radio interview.

The alliance was not filling its role in Libya "sufficiently," Juppe told France Info radio Tuesday.

"NATO wanted to take the operational lead, we accepted that," he said. "It must play its role today which means preventing Gadhafi from using heavy weapons to bomb the civil population."

British Foreign Minister William Hague on Tuesday also urged NATO member states to increase their contribution to the campaign in Libya.

France had been one of the most outspoken proponents of military action against pro-Gadhafi forces and last month became the first nation to officially recognize the Libyan opposition. It was against a NATO lead after it became clear that the United States would pull its combat jets from the front lines, favoring a British-French operational command instead.

Juppe's statement is a sign that Western politicians are frustrated that rebel forces aren't able to hold ground despite Gadhafi's crumbling military power. NATO planes last week accidentally killed rebel forces retreating.

The rebels refused a recent cease-fire drafted by the African Union, saying the plan didn't include Gadhafi's dismissal from Libya. With the fighting so far resulting in a stalemate, Western leaders hope for Gadhafi to eventually leave the country. That this will happen soon looks unlikely.

Especially around Misrata, a Mediterranean port city of roughly 300,000 that is being shelled by government artillery, NATO needs to step up its air raids to protect civilians, critics say.

While van Uhm said that the situation in Misrata was still a major concern, he added that NATO planes have been destroying several regime tanks there.

The port, he added, is under rebel control and handling humanitarian aid shipments for the civilian population.

The only aircraft that challenged the no-fly zone since its enforcement, he said, was rebel plane. The MiG-23 fighter jet took off Saturday from an airfield in Benghazi but was forced to land only minutes later.

earlier related report
US backs NATO, despite French, British complaints
Washington (AFP) April 12, 2011 - The United States on Tuesday expressed full confidence in NATO's capacity to carry out the Libya mission, after France and Britain complained they were not getting enough support.

Washington has deliberately ceded its initial leadership role to European powers in the operation to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians in Libya and appears reluctant to get drawn back into the vanguard.

"We have every confidence in NATO's ability to carry out the task of enforcing the arms embargo as well as the no-fly zone and the protection of civilians in Libya," said Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman.

"As the president said, the US and other key partners had capabilities that they brought to this operation up front, and then our role would diminish as NATO stepped up and took command and control of the operation... that's what's happened."

Toner denied a reporter's suggestion that France and Britain were "ganging up" on Washington as part of an initiative to win more support from US attack forces, and said that NATO was perfectly able to conduct the operation.

"It does have the capability and the structure to carry out a mission like this. And we believe it's doing its job and it's doing it effectively," Toner said.

Toner's comments were echoed by White House spokesman Jay Carney, who said "We have full confidence in NATO's capacity" and deferred questions about specific operations in Libya to the Pentagon.

Britain and France, which waged an outspoken diplomatic campaign for a no-fly zone, against initial US reluctance, complained on Tuesday that the alliance needed to do more to protect civilians in Libya.

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet complained that Paris and London had been left to bear "the bulk of the effort," amid calls by rebels for a quicker pace of air strikes against Moamer Kadhafi's forces.

He noted that the United States was now only providing logistical support to the operation after withdrawing its combat jets last week.

"Today we have no support in the ground attack role, without which there's no chance of breaking the siege of towns like Misrata or Zenten," he told the French parliament.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, taking a less forceful tone, noted that London had supplied additional ground-attack aircraft and said he would "welcome if other countries also do the same."

"We must maintain and intensify our efforts in NATO," Hague said.

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