"Kadhafi will never give up power except by force," Mustafa Abdel Jalil said after talks with Foreign Minister Franco Frattini during his first foreign tour since becoming head of Libya's Transitional National Council.

Jalil thanked France, Italy and Qatar -- the three countries that have officially recognised Libya's opposition. Asked by reporters about future oil contracts, he said: "Our decisions will be influenced by who helped us."

"There will be friendship and cooperation above all with Italy, France and Qatar," he said.

Jalil visited Qatar on Monday and is to meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy -- the first to recognise the opposition -- on Wednesday.

Jalil also met Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and top business executives in Rome.

Frattini said Italy would host international talks in early May aimed at helping rebel-held eastern Libya with financial and military aid.

Frattini cited Jalil as saying that 10,000 people had been killed and up to 55,000 wounded in the conflict so far.

A meeting of the international contact group on Libya in Rome will discuss "legal instruments to allow the sale of oil products," Frattini said.

The meeting would also try to find ways of using assets owned by Kadhafi's regime that have been frozen around the world in order to aid the rebels and would discuss the thorny issue of arming the Libyan rebels, he said.

"We have condemned the violence of the regime in the streets, we have condemned the use of snipers in Tripoli and in the besieged cities.... We can't say this is not our problem," Frattini said.

Italy was weighing the possibility of sending "night-vision equipment, radars and technology to block communications," he said.

"We don't have many alternatives. One of the alternatives is the use of ground troops. Italy is not in favour of sending ground troops," he said.

"There is still no defined political way out... There have been many initiatives. The regime is still engaged as an active interlocutor in an attempt to find a succession to itself. This is not acceptable," he added.

Frattini also said economic sanctions on the Kadhafi regime were beginning to have an effect and called on more countries to recognise the rebels.

Libya was an Italian colony between 1911 and 1942 and had enjoyed close ties with Kadhafi in recent years. Friendly relations between the Libyan leader and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi were particularly controversial.

Initially cautious after the start of the uprising against Kadhafi's regime, Italy's foreign policy gradually evolved into openly calling for him to quit power and it is now taking an active part in military operations.

Italy is currently Libya's top trade partner and the two countries signed a treaty in 2008 that paved the way for billions of euros (dollars) in investments in each other's economies, many of which have now been suspended.

earlier related report
One month on, NATO admits limits to air war in Libya
Brussels (AFP) April 19, 2011 - NATO acknowledged Tuesday the limits of air power to stop Moamer Kadhafi's forces attacking the Libyan city of Misrata as France voiced more frustration over the one-month-old bombing campaign.

An alliance general said NATO pilots destroyed a mobile rocket launcher firing on Misrata on Monday night and then struck armoured vehicles advancing towards the rebel-held city, where medics say 1,000 people have been killed.

After NATO destroyed 40 tanks around Misrata in the past weeks, Dutch Brigadier General Mark van Uhm conceded that Kadhafi's tactic of using human shields and hiding heavy weapons in urban areas has deterred some NATO missions.

"Within the current mandate and the way we operate or are allowed to operate, using air power to protect Libyan civilians on the ground of course has limitations," he told reporters.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who has already pressed NATO to do more in Libya, said the military pressure should be "maintained and even intensified."

"I am particularly outraged by the fate of Misrata," Juppe said. "The weather conditions have not always been favourable (for air strikes) but a cannon is visible," he said.

As fears of a prolonged stalemate mount, France and Britain, which fired the first shots on March 19 along with the United States, have called on allies to boost their involvement in the air war.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday that Paris, which carries out the bulk of the missions along with Britain, would intensify its own air strikes although he admitted that a political solution was vital.

An influential French lawmaker, and member of President Nicolas Sarkozy's party, suggested that France should deploy special forces to guide the air strikes against the increasingly elusive targets on the ground.

But Juppe ruled out putting boots on the ground, which is forbidden under the UN mandate authorising "all necessary measures" to protect civilians. Britain, however, decided to send military advisers to help organise rebels.

With no end in sight to the conflict, leaders in Paris, London and Washington vowed in a joint letter last week to keep up the campaign until Kadhafi leaves power, but the resilient strongman has defied his one-time allies.

"We are going to have to settle in for the long haul. Bombs won't make him go," said Nick Witney, European Council on Foreign Relations security expert, adding that it was up to the Libyan people to sort out their own future.

"I'm afraid that frustrating though it is, one has to accept that in military terms it is a stalemate, and it is going to stay that way until Libyans negotiate a solution to it. We just have to be patient," he said.

NATO jets and cruise missiles struck Kadhafi's command and control centres late Monday but the 42-year veteran leader remains entrenched in his Tripoli stronghold, while rebels hold fort in their Benghazi bastion in the east.

NATO's top commander called at a meeting of foreign ministers last week for eight more warplanes armed with "smart" bombs. Van Uhm told allies more planes had arrived since Friday but he refused to say how many.

Only six out of 28 nations are conducting air strikes -- France, Britain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark and Norway. Italy and Spain ruled out conducting bombings last week.

The United States has resisted pressure to return to a frontline role after handing control to NATO half way through the first month, but some analysts say Washington will have to come back if the mission is to prevail.

Without the active military support of the United States, "we are realising that this operation has many weaknesses", said Alvaro de Vasconcelos, head of the European Union Institute for Security Studies.

"It is even running short of certain munitions," he said, referring to a Washington Post report that said NATO was faced with a shortage of precision bombs.

Rushing to the aid of Misrata should be a priority and the city could hold the key to the conflict's resolution, analysts say.

"It's a city at the heart of the area controlled by Kadhafi," Vasconcelos said.

"If the international community can protect Misrata and allow insurgents to control the city, it will spell the end for Kadhafi."

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News