Clinton heads to UAE for talks on Libya

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left here Wednesday for Abu Dhabi to consult with countries backing military action in Libya and looking at more ways to help the Libyan opposition.

The talks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital on Thursday come after President Barack Obama said NATO's mission in Libya was forging "inexorable" advances that meant it was only a matter of time before defiant Moamer Kadhafi's departure.

The so-called International Contact Group meeting will build on a May 5 gathering in Rome where Clinton and her partners agreed on a new fund to aid Libya's rebels and promised to tap frozen assets of Kadhafi's regime.

US officials said the participants will discuss a "range of issues," including implementation of UN Security Council resolutions 1970 and 1973.

Resolution 1970 imposed bans on assets and travel on members of Kadhafi's regime as well as an arms embargo.

Resolution 1973 authorized "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians, including air strikes on Kadhafi's ground forces and a no-fly zone.

The International Contact Group on Libya, which includes all the countries participating in the NATO-led campaign targeting Kadhafi's regime, held its inaugural meeting in Qatar, which participates in the NATO mission.

NATO has intensified its campaign, launching daily raids on Tripoli, but only nine of NATO's 28 member states are taking part in the strikes. France and Britain are bearing the brunt of the load with helicopters now in their arsenal.

The other countries are the United States, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Italy and non-NATO state the United Arab Emirates, which sent 12 warplanes to enforce the no-fly zone.

Countries such as Spain and the Netherlands, and non-NATO partner Sweden, have contributed combat jets but their roles are limited to enforcing the no-fly zone aimed at preventing Kadhafi attack planes from taking off.

Turkey, which reluctantly backed the mission, is only participating in the naval embargo.

Around a dozen NATO members are not contributing any assets to the mission, including Germany, which has refused to back the United Nations resolution that authorized the mission.

Weeks of air strikes on regime targets have thus far failed to force Kadhafi out, but Obama nevertheless insisted that he was on borrowed time after a brutal four-decades-long rule.

The president, criticized by some domestic opponents for allowing Britain and France to take the lead in the NATO mission after an initial US blitz, argued that the effort had already achieved substantial goals.

Meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Obama said that the port city of Benghazi was now free from the threat of the Libyan regime and that Kadhafi forces had been pushed back from the city of Misrata. (AFP)