Cash boost for Libya rebels amid NATO warnings

Anti-Gaddafi rebels are gaining international support Benghazi - AFP Libya's rebels won a cash boost and crucial recognition from key powers, as the US warned on Friday that military shortcomings could imperil NATO's air war on strongman Muammar  Gaddafi's forces.
Mikhail Margelov, the special envoy of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, meanwhile said Friday he was preparing to visit Tripoli to find a solution to the Libya conflict after meeting the opposition in their Benghazi stronghold.
The surge of support for the rebels battling to oust Kadhafi came at a meeting Thursday in Abu Dhabi of the International Contact Group on Libya, during which key powers agreed to unlock a billion dollars for their coffers.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Rome would provide the rebel National Transitional Council with loans and fuel products worth 300 to 400 million euros ($438 million to $584 million).
And his French counterpart, Alain Juppe, said Paris would release 290 million euros ($420.9 million) of frozen Libyan funds for the NTC.
Libya's former foreign minister, Abdurrahman Shalgam, said the NTC needed at least $3 billion over the next four months to pay its expenses.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also attended the Abu Dhabi meeting, offered no direct US financial contribution to the rebels, pledging instead another "$26.5 million to help all the victims of this conflict, including Libyan refugees."
Such money will likely be distributed through relief agencies.
A US State Department official later told reporters "we have got commitments of something about $300 million that came out of today's meeting," including $180 million from Kuwait and $100 million from Qatar.
On the diplomatic front, the United States joined Australia and Spain in recognising the NTC as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people, with pressure mounting on the veteran leader to step down.
"Gaddafi's days are numbered. We are working with our international partners through the UN to plan for the inevitable: a post-Gaddafi Libya," Clinton told the meeting.
"Time is on our side," the chief US diplomat said, adding international military, economic and political pressure was mounting on the Libyan colonel to abandon his four decades in power at the helm of the north African nation.
Militarily, a fresh wave of NATO air strikes hit the Libyan capital very early Friday, with three strong explosions shaking central Tripoli at around midnight. Other more distant explosions followed.
In the past two days, Tripoli has been targeted by the most intense NATO air raids since the international military campaign began on March 19.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned in Brussels however that military shortcomings among NATO members could jeopardise the air war in Libya.
With half of the countries in the 28-member alliance not participating in the Libya campaign, Gates said it reflected a worrisome lack of military assets.
"Frankly, many of those allies sitting on the sidelines do so not because they do not want to participate, but simply because they cannot. The military capabilities simply aren't there," Gates said in a Friday speech.
Gates acknowledged the mission has met its initial military goals of grounding Gaddafi's air force and limiting the regime's ability to launch attacks against civilians. However, he said many allies lacked intelligence and surveillance aircraft and specialists, which meant the US military had to step in to ensure allied fighter jets could identify and strike targets.
"Furthermore, the mightiest military alliance in history is only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country -- yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the US, once more, to make up the difference," he said.
In Moscow, envoy Margelov said he believed there remained "a window of opportunity to hold talks between conflicting sides."
"I am now involved in preparations for a Tripoli trip," Margelov said after returning from his trip to the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi and Egypt.
"We will be ready to offer some kind of contours of a 'roadmap' for settling the Libya conflict after my trip to Tripoli. The process of acknowledging positions and accumulating material is now continuing."
Margelov said he could not give a specific date for his next visit as Russia was waiting for NATO to arrange a transport corridor so that the visit could go ahead in full security.
He said that in Tripoli he would seek to hold talks with the Libyan prime minister and foreign minister, adding that he was ready to also meet with Gaddafi himself but so far Medvedev has not given him any orders to do so.