LONDON: British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Thursday that Moamer Kadhafi's regime in Libya was finished but fighting was far from over.
He also pledged that NATO's aerial bombing campaign would continue as long as civilians remained at risk.
"The Kadhafi regime is finished -- there is no way back for the Kadhafi regime and clearly many of its key members are on the run," he told a London press conference.
But Hague said there remained "forces forces loyal to the Kadhafi regime, concentrated particularly in the south of Tripoli and around the city of Sirte.
"As long as that remains the case and they remain a threat to the civilian population, then the NATO operations will continue."
Britain, France and the US were the first countries to launch military action over Libya in March under a UN resolution to protect civilians from Kadhafi's forces, which were brutally suppressing a revolt.
NATO took over command of the military campaign several days after it began.
Libyan rebels stormed into Tripoli this week after a six-month civil war and overran Kadhafi's compound, but the veteran leader has yet to be captured and although rebel forces control most of the capital, fighting is still raging in some parts of the city.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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