MARSEILLE, FRANCE //European, American and Middle Eastern nations united behind the opposition to Col Muammar Qaddafi's Libyan regime created a special fund yesterday to aid the beleaguered rebels and announced that their next summit would be held in the UAE.
Although full details were not immediately made known, the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani, said his country had pledged $400-500 million (Dh1.47 billion-Dh1.84bn) and Kuwait a further $180m (Dh661.1m).
The main Libyan opposition group, the Interim Transitional National Council (ITNC), has estimated that it needs between Dh7.35bn and Dh11.02bn, much of it for food, medical and other basic supplies alone.
Coalition partners will now investigate raising money for the rebels by tapping Libyan government assets, valued at more than Dh200bn, frozen by the European Union and United States.
The fund was announced in Rome by the Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, after the latest meeting of the international contact group on the Libyan conflict, which he chaired jointly with the Qatari prime minister.
The UAE summit will be the group's fourth following yesterday's gathering in Rome and previous meetings in London and Doha.
"The next meeting would be in the UAE, followed by one in Turkey in the second half of June," Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the UAE Foreign Minister, said in Rome yesterday. He said the precise dates of the meetings had not yet been set.
The Rome talks took place amid reports of fierce fighting in and around the Libyan city of Misurata. Despite pounding Libyan military capability for seven weeks in a campaign now led by Nato, coalition forces have so far failed to ease pressure on the rebels by Qaddafi troops.
After talks with Mr Frattini before the full meeting, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the focus was on "discussing in depth how better to increase the pressure on Gaddafi and those around him, diplomatically, economically". The need was to bring an end to violence against civilians and begin a "democratic transition to a better future".
The new fund will be known as the "temporary financial mechanism" and will aim to facilitate a flow of money "effectively and transparently" to the Benghazi-based ITNC, Mr Frattini said.
Mrs Clinton, who repeated her call for Col Qaddafi to relinquish or be forced out of power, said Washington would pursue legislation to enable some portion of those assets frozen in the US. She added: "The US is also working to facilitate oil sales by the opposition. Our treasury department recently took steps to remove barriers under our domestic law for oil-related transactions."
Her role at the summit also involved the formal presentation of a US pledge to provide surplus, non-lethal goods worth Dh92m to "support and protect" the rebels. This is on top of about twice that amount in humanitarian aid, the first shipments of which are expected to be delivered to the rebel-held city of Benghazi within days.
Mr Frattini said there was a high-priority need for the rebel council to seek the unfreezing of Libyan assets to be diverted for humanitarian purposes. Italy and France had urged the EU to seek a solution, he said, adding: "That money belongs to the Libyan people."
He called on the UN Security Council's sanctions committee to work out the mechanism that would enable to rebels to begin this process.
The contact group was established in the early stages of the operation sanctioned by the UN Security Council to enforce a no-fly zone in Libyan skies and protect civilians from attack by Col Qaddafi's forces.
Mrs Clinton said the US shared Italy's belief that military pressure including the Nato air strikes remained an instrument in the campaign to force the regime to halt its attacks.
"We have made it abundantly clear that the best way to protect civilians is for Qaddafi to cease his ruthless, brutal attack on civilians from the west to the east, to withdraw from the cities that he is sieging and attacking and to leave power," he said. "This is the outcome we are seeking."
Nato's secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, also present at the Rome summit, said this week that hostilities would continue until accomplishment of their objectives: an end to attacks on civilians; withdrawal of government forces and guaranteed access for humanitarian aid.
But Germany, lukewarm from the outset of the campaign and detached from the Nato action, again stressed the importance of finding a political solution. "The limits of the military are visible," said the German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle.
Mr Frattini confirmed that the search for political resolution had been covered in the 22-nation talks at which the Arab League, EU and Libyan rebels, as well as Nato, were represented.
The Italian minister has previously stated that while it is impossible to set a date for an end to Nato operations, the "political goal is for military action to cease as soon as possible". His view has been echoed by the French foreign minister, Alain Juppé.
Mr Frattini also called at the start of the four-hour summit for other nations to join Italy, France and Qatar in giving diplomatic recognition to the rebel council.
He said: "This will help strengthen our Benghazi partners and increase the Gadhafi regime's sense of isolation."
* With additional reporting by Associated Press and Reuters
