TRIPOLI: US President Barack Obama admitted on Wednesday that NATO's campaign in Libya had limits as South Africa prepared a diplomatic push to offer strongman Moamer Kadhafi a way out, officials said.
Libya is expected to be one of the main themes of a summit of the G8 group of developed nations in the French resort of Deauville on Thursday and Friday, which Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron will attend.
"Once you rule out ground forces, then there are going to be some inherent limitations to our air strike operation," Obama said, adding that ultimately Kadhafi's ouster would be a slow and steady process.
In a joint press conference with Cameron in London, Obama urged patience in the NATO-led air operation but added that the opposition in Libya would also have to "carry out its responsibilities."
South African President Jacob Zuma will visit Tripoli next week for talks that officials told AFP would focus on an "exit strategy" for the Libyan leader, his office said.
"President Zuma will stop over in Tripoli for a discussion with Libyan leader Colonel Moamer Kadhafi, on May 30," his office said in a statement.
Zuma visited Tripoli on April 10 as part of an African Union delegation that sought to broker a truce between Kadhafi and the rebels, but their proposals foundered when the rebels insisted the strongman quit office immediately.
Two sources in the president's office, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the talks would focus on Kadhafi's "exit strategy."
"The purpose is to discuss an exit strategy for Kadhafi. The meeting is still very much in the planning stages," one official said on condition of anonymity.
A second official said that South Africa was working on a transition plan with Turkey, which last month proposed a "roadmap" to end the Libyan turmoil also envisaging Kadhafi's departure.
A foreign ministry official said Turkey was ready to help any initiative to end Libya's turmoil but had had no contact so far with South Africa's leader on an exit strategy for Kadhafi.
"We have had no particular dialogue so far but it does not mean that we will not have any in the future," the official said, adding Turkey was ready to contribute to any Libya peace initiative.
South Africa's new diplomatic push came as NATO jets blasted Libya's capital overnight after the alliance said it was shifting into high gear in a bid to deliver a decisive blow to Kadhafi's government.
The alliance must "speed up the systematic destruction of Tripoli's military machine with the goal of neutralising Kadhafi's forces for good," a NATO official said, adding allies hoped Kadhafi would fall by late June or early July.
After three months of fighting, however, the regime remains entrenched in much of the west, including the capital Tripoli.
Worried about getting bogged down in an endless stalemate, NATO allies, who were divided over going into Libya in the first place and face budgetary constraints, have no choice but to increase the pressure, the official said.
Russia's foreign ministry called NATO's latest bombings of Tripoli a "grave departure" from UN resolutions on Libya that could lead to a further escalation in violence.
Moscow said the West's attempts to justify the offensive by pointing to the threats being posed to civilians by Kadhafi's regime ignored the danger of the Tripoli government digging in.
"Air strikes are not stopping the military confrontation between the Libyan parties and only creating more suffering among peaceful civilians," the ministry statement said.
Six powerful explosions struck late on Tuesday near Kadhafi's residence, targeted a day earlier by intensive NATO air strikes, an AFP journalist said.
At a refugee camp near the Tunisia-Libya border, a fire killed four people and injured one, the United Nations said.
Thousands of people have fled to the camp since violence broke out in Libya in February.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2010
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