India invited to attend international conference on Libya

Mathew Berlin, Aug 25: India is among a group of countries invited to attend an international conference on Libya, which French President Nicolas Sarkozy will host in Paris next week to discuss the future of the north African nation after the overthrow of the Muammar Gaddafi regime.

The conference of the "friends of Libya" is intended to speed up humanitarian aid, medical supplies, rehabilitation and other immediate assistance for the war-torn nation as well as to work out a long-term plan for the reconstruction of a "new independent Libya", Sarkozy said after talks with Mahmoud Jibril, head of the Libyan National Transitional Council.

A top priority for the conference is to clear the way for releasing the frozen wealth of Gaddafi and his clans in bank accounts abroad to meet the country's immediate needs, to support the transitional government and to finance the country's reconstruction as a democratic nation.

"There is no need at all for us to mobilise large funds", Sarkozy said.

"We only have to make available to the Libyan people the money from the frozen accounts of Gaddafi and his clans."

Besides the Libya contact group which comprised mainly of nations which participated in a six-month military operation in support of the rebel forces seeking to overthrow the Gaddafi regime, India, China, Russia, Brazil and South Africa, which stayed out of the conflict, will also be invited, Sarkozy said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will also attend the conference.

Sarkozy said he will organise the conference jointly with British Prime Minister David Cameron, his closest ally in launching the UN-authorised military campaign to enforce a "no-fly zone" over Libya.

PTI