China made its first confirmed contact with Libyan rebels in the latest diplomatic setback for Muammar Qadhafi, and France said on Friday it was working with those close to the veteran ruler to persuade him to leave power. The meeting in Qatar between a Chinese diplomat and the leader of the rebel National Transitional Council follows a spate of defections by high profile figures this week, including top oil official and former prime minister Shokri Ghanem.
Libyan rebels and Nato have made Qadhafi's departure a condition for agreeing a cease-fire in a conflict that has killed thousands, but he emphatically told visiting South African President Jacob Zuma this week he would not leave Libya. A Nato-led military alliance extended its mission to protect civilians in Libya for a further 90 days this week, and France said it was stepping up military pressure as well as working with those close to Qadhafi to try to convince him to quit.
"He is more and more isolated," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told Europe 1 radio. "There have been more defections around him and we have received messages from his close entourage which has understood that he must leave power." In Beijing, a terse Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said Beijing's ambassador to Qatar, Zhang Zhiliang, had met and "exchanged views on developments in Libya" with Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the chairman of the rebel council that is trying to offer itself as a credible temporary alternative to Qadhafi.
The ministry gave no details of the talks but the meeting itself was an indication that Beijing wants to keep open lines of communication with the rebel forces. China was among the emerging powers that abstained in March when the United Nations Security Council voted to authorise Nato-led air strikes.
In London, Major General John Lorimer said British warplanes destroyed two tanks and two armoured personnel carriers on Thursday in Yafran, 100 km (60 miles) south-west of Tripoli, where he said Qadhafi's forces were continuing to attack rebels. A rebel spokesman in the Western Mountains town of Nalut, Kalefa Ali, said rebels were fighting forces loyal to Qadhafi in Trumeet on the southern edge of Yafran and in Bir Ayyid to the north on Friday evening.
In Tunisia, a UN official said the bodies of 150 African refugees fleeing turmoil in Libya had been recovered off the Tunisian coast after the vessels carrying them illegally to Europe got into difficulty. Tunisian authorities rescued 570 people, but many others went into the water when a stampede to get off the small fishing boats - combined with the effect of rough seas - capsized some of the vessels, a Tunisian official said. In all about 250 people were reported on Thursday as missing from the vessels. The House of Representatives prepared to vote on differing approaches to US involvement in Libya, one directing President Barack Obama to pull US forces out of Nato operations and a second that demands more information about US strategy.
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