The United States and Britain have raised the possibility of creating a no-fly zone to prevent Kadhafi from launching air raids on his people, with London claiming that a UN mandate was not necessarily needed.

Warning that military action could turn Arabs against Europe, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe insisted that any operation, including policing Libya's skies, would first need approval from the United Nations.

"Should we prepare for a military intervention? We don't think so in this context," he told the French National Assembly.

In Cairo later, the Arab League said it would consider backing a no-fly zone but ruled out support for direct foreign military intervention in the country.

"The Arab countries cannot remain with their arms folded when the blood of the brotherly Libyan people is being shed," the league said in a resolution after a meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo.

"The ministers have decided to pursue talks on the best way to protect Libya's citizens and to assure their security, including the imposition of an aerial exclusion zone and coordination between the Arab League and the African Union on this subject," it said.

The French government expressed its "reluctance" at a meeting of ambassadors of the 28-nation alliance in Brussels, Juppe said, adding however that planning for a possible no-fly zone should continue in case the UN approves one.

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, during a visit to EU headquarters, said Britain would not enforce a no-fly zone on its own "but we think essential to plan for every contingency."

A NATO diplomat said allies were making contingency plans in case the UN asks the alliance to act in Libya.

As Kadhafi's forces launched raids against the opposition, with warplanes reportedly launching air strikes in two eastern towns, NATO's decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, met in Brussels.

Ambassadors "discussed the fast-moving situation in Libya" and expressed "great concern about continued violence and also about the serious humanitarian situation," NATO deputy spokeswoman Carmen Romero told AFP.

"The alliance continues to actively monitor events in that country," she said.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen continues to consult with international partners "in order to be prepared to assist in any eventuality if requested to do so," she said, refusing to elaborate.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has acknowledged that there was no unanimity within NATO for the use of force.

Turkey, an influential NATO member with a majority Muslim population, rejected the idea of military action, saying the alliance could only intervene when one of its members is attacked.

"This would be absurd," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a visit in Germany this week, according to Anatolia news agency. "NATO has no business being there."

"We are opposed to such a scenario. Such an eventuality is unthinkable."

The United States flexed its military muscle Wednesday as two US warships carrying marines and equipment steamed into the Mediterranean Sea en route to Libya.

Holed up in Tripoli, Kadhafi warned that Western intervention to help rebels would trigger a "very bloody war" in which "thousands of Libyans would die."

The US military warned that enforcing a no-fly zone would be a complex operation that would require bombing the Kadhafi regime's radar and missile defences.

During a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Tuesday, NATO's Rasmussen said an aerial mission over Libya would be complicated because of humanitarian operations on the ground, a European diplomat said.

Backed by US military firepower, NATO has a vast list of assets available to undertake a complex mission.

Germany hosts a fleet of AWACS, large radar and surveillance aircraft that can monitor the skies, while US bases in Italy could serve as a staging area for operations.

The military alliance enforced a UN-mandated no-fly zone once before in Bosnia during the Balkans war in the early 1990s.

Winning a UN mandate for Libya could prove difficult, with the foreign minister of Russia, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, dismissing talk of a no-fly zone as "superfluous."

earlier related report
US 'long way' from Libya no-fly zone: Clinton
Washington (AFP) March 2, 2011 - The United States is a "long way" from deciding whether to impose a no-fly zone in Libya to support a revolt against Moamer Kadhafi, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told senators Wednesday.

Clinton also told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that US officials worried in the longer term about "Libya descending into chaos and becoming a giant Somalia" where Al-Qaeda or its affiliates could gain a foothold.

The chief US diplomat underlined remarks from US defense leaders who said Tuesday that imposing a no-fly zone over Libya would be "extraordinarily" complex and that NATO has yet to agree on any military intervention there.

"There is a great deal of caution that is being exercised with respect to any actions that we might take other than in support of humanitarian missions," Clinton said when asked about military options for Libya.

The chief US diplomat recalled how the former administration of president Bill Clinton, her husband, faced a similar situation in the Balkans in the 1990s.

Then "there were many, many reasons why it was not viewed with favor that we would set up a no-fly zone," she said. "Eventually it was determined it was in the interest of the peace and stability in the region."

But, referring to Libya, Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "I think we are a long way from making that decision."

If the United States and its allies imposed a no-fly zone, US and other military aircraft would ensure that Kadhafi's warplanes and helicopters were grounded so they cannot attack the Libyan opposition.

Calls for a no-fly zone, similar to those imposed on Iraq and Bosnia in the 1990s, have come in response to media accounts that Khadafi's forces have used aircraft to fire on civilians.

Admiral Mike Mullen, the US military's top officer, said Tuesday that a no-fly zone "is an extraordinarily complex operation to set up."

He agreed with an assessment voiced by the head of US Central Command, General James Mattis, who said enforcing a no-fly zone would require first bombing radar and missile defenses in Libya.

In reply to questions about what the Obama administration was doing to fight Al-Qaeda and its affiliates in Africa, Clinton said "one of our biggest concerns is Libya descending into a chaos and becoming a giant Somalia.

"It's right now not something we see in the offing, but many of the Al-Qaeda activists in Afghanistan and later in Iraq came from Libya and came from eastern Libya which is now the so-called free area of Libya," she said.

In Somalia, the Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab group has long threatened to oust a weak Transitional Federal Government, which is backed by African Union forces.

Before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Clinton alluded briefly to potential chaos when she said "in the years ahead, Libya could become a peaceful democracy, or it could face protracted civil war, or it could descend into chaos."

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