Foreign leaders have finalised a funding mechanism to pump hundreds of millions of dollars to Libya's cash-strapped rebel forces, intensifying pressure on Colonel Gaddafi's weakened regime even as Nato warplanes bombed targets in the capital Tripoli.
Hillary Clinton during a press conference at the end of the third meeting of the International contact group on Libya Photo: AFP
By Rob Crilly, Dubai
6:24PM BST 09 Jun 2011
Western and Arab leaders met rebel leaders in Abu Dhabi to plan for a Libya free from Gaddafi's clutches.
Donors immediately promised more than £780m for the fund, which is backed by billions of dollars in frozen Libyan assets.
At the start of the third meeting of the Contact Group for Libya, Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, urged the coalition to intensify pressure amid optimism that Tripoli would soon fall.
"Gaddafi's days are numbered. We are working with our international partners through the UN to plan for the inevitable: a post-Gaddafi Libya," she said.
While senior officials from the Contact Group – which includes Britain and France as well as Arab allies Qatar, Jordan and Kuwait – worked on ways to support the rebels, Nato air strikes rattled the Libyan capital with bombing runs believed to have targeted the outskirts of Tripoli.
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There were eight explosions in a first series of strikes on Thursday.
Hours later, the sound of six more attacks boomed in the distance, according to reporters in the city.
Libyan rebels, who control much of the east of the country, have struggled to advance on Tripoli as they run short of weapons and cash.
They estimate they need at least $3bn just to ensure food supplies and salaries for the next four months.
Abdurrahman Shalgam, former foreign minister and envoy to the United Nations, said: "We need the money now."
On Thursday donors began promising money for the new fund, which will be guaranteed by $200bn of frozen Libyan assets around the world.
Kuwait's foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem Al-Sabah, said his government would immediately transfer $180m.
Italy said it would deliver 300 to 400m euros of fuel and aid and loans to pay for the day-to-day running of the opposition Transitional National Council.
And France said it would pay in 290m euros of frozen funds from the Libyan Central Bank.
At the same time, Libyan officials hit back angrily at accusations that Colonel Gaddafi personally ordered the rape of hundreds of women as a weapon of war against rebel forces.
Libyan diplomat Mustafa Shaban told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva that the government was "the victim of a widespread aggression" and blamed the news media, opposition and African and foreign mercenaries for human rights violations and even "acts of cannibalism".
A day earlier, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he was looking into allegations that pro-Gaddafi security forces had been given medication such as Viagra to enhance their sex drive.
Mr Ocampo has asked judges to issue an arrest warrant for the Libyan leader's arrest, a move criticised by some analysts for making a negotiated settlement more difficult.
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