Libya rebels to get foreign funds

Libya’s rebels say they need more money to keep fighting Col Muammar Gaddafi’s forces

An international grouping is meeting in Rome to discuss financial aid for Libya’s rebels.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Libya Contact Group would also look at ways to put pressure on Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.

She said the desired outcome was an end to violence against civilians and a “democratic transition”.

Meanwhile, a ship has evacuated people from the besieged port of Misrata to the main rebel city of Benghazi.

The ship, the Red Star One, was chartered by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) was fired on as it docked at Misrata to embark wounded people and foreign workers.

Five people were killed in the shelling.

Amid scenes of panic, families were separated and the ship had to re-dock twice before finally setting sail with 1,300 passengers – mostly wounded people and foreign workers stranded as the city was besieged by Col Gaddafi’s forces.

They have now arrived, tired and bedraggled, in Benghazi, says the BBC’s John Sudworth.

Misrata is the only substantial city in western Libya still held by rebels trying to overthrow Col Gaddafi.

Rebels hold much of the east of the country, around the city of Benghazi, while Col Gaddafi holds most of the west.

The rebels in both Benghazi and Misrata say they need assistance.

Those in Misrata have been holding on to the city against repeated attacks and say they need more Nato air strikes as well as more weapons and ammunition to continue the ground fight.

In Benghazi, the rebel administration is running out of money. A spokesman for the Transitional National Council said the rebels need $1.5bn (£0.9bn) in the coming months, the Associated Press news agency said.

The Libya Contact Group, composed of Nato members, Arab states and international organisations, is looking at ways to finance the rebels, either through loans or the sale of oil from rebel-held areas.

“Today we will be discussing in depth how better to increase the pressure on Gaddafi and those around him diplomatically, politically, economically [and] how we can bring about the outcome that the people of Libya and the international community seek – an end to the violence against civilians and the beginning of a democratic transition to a better future,” said Hillary Clinton ahead of the group’s meeting in Rome.

Nato is enforcing a UN mandate to protect civilians caught in the conflict.

In a report to the UN Security Council, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said between 500 and 700 people were believed to have been killed in Libya in February alone – the month the conflict began.

He said he was seeking warrants for the arrest of top Libyan officials, but did not name them.

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