Turkey calls for humanitarian funds for Libya

Turkey has called for billions of dollars of frozen Libyan funds to be released to ease a worsening humanitarian situation across the war-ravaged country during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Turkey made the call at the meeting of Western and Arab powers holding in Turkey in an attempt to find a political solution for Libya that would persuade Muammar Gaddafi to give up power.

The fourth meeting of the Libya contact group, established in London in March, comes after reports suggesting Gaddafi might be ready to give up his 41-year rule if he could get a deal.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is hoping a political solution could emerge by the start of Ramadan in August.

He said: "There has been progressive improvement of the situation on the ground.  What we need to do now is consolidate our achievements and move into the phase of conflict resolution."

He noted that the rebels urgently needed cash and urged contact group members to consider opening credit lines to the rebel Transitional National Council (TNC) in Benghazi.

Davutoglu also backed a rebel proposal for the release of three billion dollars of frozen Libyan assets to alleviate a "grave" humanitarian situation during Ramadan in areas of Libya controlled by the rebels and by Gaddafi.

"We see merit in the suggestion of the TNC for the release of $3 billion from the frozen assets of Libya under U.N. supervision and equal distribution of this amount during Ramadan season to Tripoli and Benghazi on the condition that it will only be used for providing humanitarian assistance," he said.

British contribution

Britain said it will send four more Tornado warplanes to support the NATO mission in Libya, in addition to the 12 already deployed.

On the sidelines of the Libya contact group meeting in Istanbul, British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt told reports that the Tornado warplanes were the aircraft which were particularly well equipped for surveillance and reconnaissance.

He pointed out that the conflict had gone on with targets harder to detect resulting to the need to have the capability available.

"They have the capability to launch airstrikes," he said.

The decision was in response to the Thursday call by NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen for members of the alliance to provide more aircraft to bomb Muammar Gaddafi's forces in order to protect Libyan civilians and enforce a no-fly zone.
Together with France, Britain has taken a lead role in the NATO mission.

In addition to the ageing Tornadoes, Britain has also assigned Typhoon multi-role warplanes to the NATO mission, and the aircraft are stationed at Gioia del Colle in south-west Italy, some 600 kilometres from the Libyan coastline.

Expected impact

"This latest deployment will bolster NATO's reconnaissance capability. The deployment will have no effect on operations in Afghanistan," Major General Nick Pope, the Chief of the Defence Staff's communications officer, said.

"As a formidable attack aircraft this deployment will also provide a useful secondary increase to NATO's overall strike capability," he said.