Libyan rebels seek $5 billion in aid

DOHA: Libya's rebel National Transitional Council sought five billion dollars in emergency aid from frozen Libyan assets at a meeting with foreign representatives Wednesday, the NTC's delegate said.

The sum was twice that announced Tuesday by NTC number two Mahmud Jibril.

"The participants in the meeting supported the Libyan demand for five billion dollars to be unfrozen urgently from blocked assets" of Moamer Kadhafi's regime, Aref Ali Nayed, the TNC's envoy to the United Arab Emirates said.

The meeting, attended by representatives in the Libya contact group of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey and the United States, was held at the request of the NTC, the political organ of Libya's rebellion.

Jibril said Tuesday the funds were needed to pay salaries of Libyans before the end of the month, and for humanitarian support, NTC number two Mahmud Jibril said in Doha on Tuesday.

The UN Security Council began meeting later on Wednesday to discuss a US proposal to release frozen Libyan assets to pay for emergency humanitarian aid.

Nayed said he expected it to agree by Thursday to release 1.5 billion dollars, taking the total to 6.5 billion.

Those assets were frozen on February 26 by a UN resolution that imposed tough international sanctions on Kadhafi, his family and his close associates, in response to the brutal repression of rebel forces in Libya following their revolt.

The United States was seeking Security Council pressure on South Africa to end its opposition in the UN's Libya sanctions committee to unfreezing the $1.5 billion.

South African diplomats said their country did not oppose humanitarian aid but the question of easing UN sanctions requires broader approval.

The South African government wants to wait until after an African Union summit on Thursday and Friday before going ahead.

US diplomats said that if opposition to unfreezing assets is not lifted, US diplomats said they would seek a council vote on the resolution on Thursday or Friday.

Speaking at the end of the Doha talks, Nayed said the NTC needed the cash pay civil servants' wages, meet other basic humanitarian needs, clear mines from towns and cities and restore schools and hospitals.

Putting the economy back on its feet, and in particular starting Libya's oil flowing again, were also priorities, he added.

"The countries in the contact group must ensure that the NTC is provided with the required resources and support to assume its responsibilities to the Libyan people," Qatar's minister of international cooperation, Khalid al-Attiyah, said at the start of Wednesday's meeting.

The contact group was created in London on March 29 and comprises 30 countries and international organisations, including the United Nations, the European Union and the Arab League. (AFP)