Libya contact group meets over $2.5 billion in aid

DOHA: Officials from the Libya contact group met in Doha on Wednesday to discuss providing $2.5 billion in urgently required funds for the rebels' governing council and unfreezing Libyan assets globally.

The meeting, attended by representatives of the United States, France, Britain, Italy, Germany and Turkey, was held at the request of the National Transitional Council (NTC), the political organ of Libya's rebellion.

The aim of the talks was "to make provisions and arrange for $2.5 billion for the NTC in order 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 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 on Wednesday.

According to Qatari state news agency QNA, Attiyah noted the "urgency for the moment of paying unpaid salaries for the previous six months."

The UN Security Council was to meet later on Wednesday to discuss a US proposal to release frozen Libyan assets in order to assist the NTC.

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

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

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011