Libya's cash-starved rebels on Thursday won more than $1.1 billion of aid at a conference of Western and Arab powers that focused on the end-game for Muammar Qadhafi and the country's civil war. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped up pressure on the Libyan leader saying she was aware of talks between people close to Qadhafi that had raised the "potential" for a transition of power.
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd told the conference Qadhafi's end "may come sooner than many of you in this room may think". Nato warplanes relentlessly bombed Tripoli as the rebels said they hoped to restart oil production, stopping short of giving a date. At the United Nations, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said its investigators had found evidence linking Qadhafi to a policy of raping opponents.
A possible war crimes prosecution could be an incentive for Qadhafi to cling to power, but Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade offered to help ease his former African Union ally's exit from power and appealed to him to step down.
Clinton declined to give details of the discussions over Qadhafi's future. "There have been numerous and continuing discussions by people close to Qadhafi and we are aware that those discussions include among other matters the potential for a transition," she told a news conference in Abu Dhabi.
A bipartisan group in the US Congress urged President Barack Obama to use frozen Libyan government assets to pay for humanitarian aid for Libyan people caught up in the civil war. Nato air strikes resumed in Tripoli on Wednesday night after a lull following the heaviest day of bombings since March, with new blasts shaking the city on Thursday morning and afternoon.
Rebel Oil and Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni said the Benghazi-based leadership hoped to restart production of up to 100,000 barrels a day "soon", without specifying a timeframe, and called for more aid, immediately. "It is a failure if there is no clear financial commitment to it," he told reporters. "Our people are dying. So my message to our friends is that I hope they walk the walk."
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told Reuters Italy would give the rebels up to 400 million euros ($586.1 million) of cash and fuel aid backed by frozen Libyan assets. Kuwait said it would immediately transfer $180 million to the rebels. France pledged 290 million euros to the rebels in "preferential loans" and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey had set up a $100 fund.