Moamer Kadhafi's wife, Sofia, on Friday slammed the airstrikes that killed her son and accused NATO forces of "committing war crimes" with its strikes against the Libya regime.

"I was not there. But I wished that I was so I may die with him," Sofia Kadhafi told CNN in a telephone interview, describing the death of her son Seif al-Arab from a NATO air strike.

"My son never missed an evening prayer. We had strikes every day, and the strikes would start at evening prayer. Four rockets on one house!" she said in the rare interview.

International forces, which have been attacking Kadhafi forces under the terms of a UN resolution to protect civilians, "are looking for excuses to target Moamer. What has he done to deserve this?" asked Sofia.

Asked whether she thinks she had been personally targeted, she replied: "My children are civilians and they have been targeted. What do they have to do with this?"

NATO, she said, is "committing war crimes" in the north Africa country.

"They killed my son and the Libyan people. They are defaming our reputation, she said.

"Forty countries are against us. Life has no value anymore," she lamented, in the wake of her son's death.

"What would I want with life now? All I want out of life now is that the truth be heard. By the will of God, we will be victorious. We will live or die alongside the Libyan people. In the end, history will judge us."

Doubts have been raised in recent days of the veracity of reports on Seif al-Arab, Kadhafi's youngest son, being dead.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday pointed out that the international coalition had no information on his demise, and said the report from a Libyan government spokesman was "propaganda."

The Libyan regime claimed on May 1 that a NATO raid killed Kadhafi's youngest son and three grandchildren but that the strongman escaped unhurt in what it called a deliberate assassination attempt.

NATO said at the time that it had staged air strikes in Tripoli but did not confirm the regime claims.

earlier related report
G8: Pressure on Ghadafi, cash for reforms
Deauville, France (UPI) May 27, 2011 - World leaders meeting in France on Friday called on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to step down and promised $20 billion in aid to Tunisia and Egypt and possibly billions more for Arab Spring countries that steer a similar reform course.

"Gadhafi and the Libyan government have failed to fulfill their responsibility to protect the Libyan population and have lost all legitimacy," read a communique issued by leaders at the end of the Group of Eight summit in Deauville, France. "He has no future in a free, democratic Libya. He must go."

The strongly worded statement was backed by Russia, which had in the past weeks criticized the NATO military campaign launched in Libya.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday at a news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy that the safety of Libyan civilians couldn't be ensured as long as Gadhafi remained in the country.

"We are joined in resolve to finish the job," he said, with a nodding Sarkozy standing beside him.

Similar to the Marshall Plan that helped Germany into a boom democracy after World War II, G8 leaders launched a partnership for North Africa and the Middle East pledges billions of aid for those countries who throw out their dictators and open up for reform.

They pledged some $20 billion in loans and grants for Tunisia and Egypt, countries with free elections coming up after leaders there had to step down following massive pro-democracy demonstrations.

Aid money for countries that open up during the Arab Spring, "would ensure that the democratic transition is accompanied by economic growth which can provide more opportunities for all the people, particularly the young people, in the region," Obama said Friday.

Other countries could hope for aid if they follow the course taken by Egypt and Tunisia, the leaders indicated, saying they "strongly support the aspirations of the Arab Spring as well as those of the Iranian people."

Apart from Syria, uprisings have gripped Yemen and Bahrain. Several other leaders in the region have vowed to introduce reforms in an obvious bid to prevent demonstrations.

"The changes under way in the Middle East and North Africa are historic and have the potential to open the door to the kind of transformation that occurred in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall," they said in a statement.

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